President Obama is highlighting the country’s recent economic gains, boasting that employers appear now to be more confident than they’ve been since the start of the great recession in 2008.
“About a year ago, I promised that 2014 would be a breakthrough year for America. And this week, we got more evidence to back that up,” the president said in his weekly address Saturday.
Employers added approximately 252,000 jobs in December, pushing the unemployment rate from 5.8 to 5.6 percent, according to a report released Friday by the Labor Department.
This is the lowest unemployment rate since June 2008.
Revised figures also revealed that employers added approximately 573,000 jobs in October and November combined, 50,000 more than initial estimates predicted, the Labor Department report added.
“[2014] was the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. In 2014, unemployment fell faster than it has in three decades,” the president said.
“It has been six years since the crisis. Those years have demanded hard work and sacrifice on everybody’s part. So as a country, we have every right to be proud of what we’ve got to show for it. America’s resurgence is real,” he added. “And now that we’ve got some calmer waters, if we all do our part, if we all pitch in, we can make sure that tide starts lifting all boats again. We can make sure that the middle class is the engine that powers America’s prosperity for decades to come.”
Obama promised in his weekend remarks that he would make the U.S. economy and its recent gains a central theme of his upcoming State of the Union address to Congress.
“Creating more good jobs that pay good wages. These are just some of the ways we can help every American get ahead in the new economy. And there’s more to come. Because America is coming back. And I want to go full speed ahead,” he said.
