U.S. Chamber makes jobs data an election issue

“The Chamber will continue to advocate policies that will promote jobs and boost economic growth, and we will remind voters where candidates stand on policies that create jobs in America,” said the Chamber’s chief economist, Martin Regalia, in prepared remarks. 

Earlier Friday, the Labor Department reported the economy shed 95,000 jobs last month, but the unemployment rate held steady at 9.6 percent. 

October’s jobs report will be the last that shows monthly totals before the midterm elections. 

Regalia suggested the report is just another in a long line of dismal jobs figures that have come out since President Obama took office.  

“The employment data released today showed another month of lackluster job growth in the private sector and continued decline in the total number of jobs,” he said. “Such feeble job growth is insufficient to drive down the unemployment rate … This data is clearly moving in the wrong direction.”