Republicans Unimpressed by New Jobs Numbers
The figured were taken as a sign of hope for the economy and heralded by Christina Romer, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
"Today's employment report was the most hopeful sign yet that the stabilization of financial markets and the recovery in economic growth may be leading to improvements in the labor market," she said in a statement.
Roemer said that the loss of 11,000 jobs represented a "dramatic improvement from the decline of 597,000 in November 2008 and 741,000 in January 2009."
"It is by far the closest we have been to stable employment since the recession began almost two years ago," added Roemer.
As could be expected, Republicans had a different spin on the new numbers.
"Yesterday, President Obama hosted a 'jobs summit' at the White House in an attempt to convince the media and the American public that his administration is concerned with unemployment," said Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele. "Unfortunately this so-called 'jobs summit' was not about creating jobs – it was about creating a distraction to hide the fact that President Obama has managed to create more bureaucracy in Washington than jobs for American families."
"More than 11,000 Americans lost their jobs in the month of November, meaning more than 2.8 million Americans have lost their jobs since the stimulus passed, and the national unemployment rate remains in double digits," Steele continued. "If President Obama is truly interested in job creation, then he should stop campaigning for reelection, stop pushing 'Stimulus II,' and start working with Republicans on common-sense conservative solutions."
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH, pictured above), meanwhile, said in a statement that "while any decrease in the unemployment rate is encouraging, a 'jobless recovery' and double-digit unemployment is not what the American people were promised."
"More than three million Americans have lost their jobs since the President signed the trillion-dollar 'stimulus' that was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent and put people back to work 'immediately,'" said Boehner. "Anyone who views today's report as cause for celebration is out of touch with the American people, especially when Washington Democrats' policies – whether it's a government takeover of health care, a national energy tax, or 'card check' – are already costing jobs and will pile even more debt on our kids and grandkids."