Jobs Number Overlooks Soft Economy

ATLANTA – This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its July jobs report, which found that 255,000 jobs were created last month. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9 percent. This jobs number comes on the heels of last week’s news that the economy only grew by 1.2 percent in the second quarter of the year, making this the slowest economic start to a year since 2011. Economic growth since the end of the Great Recession has been about 50 percent less than the historical average.

“Today’s jobs number overlooks what I see on the ground every day in the HR industry: The economy is much weaker than many policymakers and commentators claim,” said Adam Robinson, CEO of Hireology and member of the Job Creators Network. “To finally get the economy growing for everyone again, we must focus on cutting the tax and regulatory barriers to economic and labor market growth.”

According to today’s report, the labor force participation rate remained essentially unchanged near a generational low of 62.8 percent, well below its historical pre-recession level of 66 percent. In fact, the real unemployment rate adjusting for the historic post-recession drop in the LFPR 9.5 percent.

Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-IL) recently announced the Bring Small Businesses Back Tax Reform Act (H.R. 5374), which would reduce the tax burden on the nation’s small business job creators. U.S. small businesses account for half the nation’s jobs and two-thirds of its new jobs. The proposed legislation would lower the tax rate on pass-through businesses’ first $150,000 worth of income to 10 percent. And it would lower the rate on income between $150,000 and $1 million to 20 percent. According to a nationwide poll, 82 percent of the population support the reforms proposed in this bill.

In a nationwide poll of small businesses commissioned by JCN earlier this year, two-thirds of respondents identified over-taxation as preventing their businesses from thriving. As a result of over-taxation, the survey also found that only one in five small business owners plan to hire additional employees over the next year, and only around one-quarter believe that doing business over the next year will be easier than the previous one.

Read the full text of the Bring Small Businesses Back Tax Reform Act here. View the poll results here. Read the white paper JCN released earlier this year assessing the state of American small businesses here. Find out more information about the campaign at DefendMainStreet.com.

To schedule an interview, contact Andrew Ransom at [email protected] or (916) 258-2396.

The Job Creators Network (JCN) is the voice of real job creators that has been missing from the debate on jobs and our economic crisis. JCN members talk about paychecks, not politics, helping the public and policymakers understand how to create jobs. For more information, please visit www.JobCreatorsNetwork.com.

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