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Today, the U.S. Department of Labor released the monthly job reportfor January. While employers added 157,000 jobs during the month, the unemployment rate crept upwards to 7.9 percent as more workers began looking for work.
The following quote regarding the January jobs report can be attributed to Rachel Unruh, associate director for National Skills Coalition:
“While it is encouraging that the economy is continuing to add jobs, too many Americans still are looking for work. Those hardest hit, workers unemployed for 6 months or longer, are having a difficult time finding work despite 3.5 million jobs that are going unfilled, in part because employers can’t find workers with the skills needed for the job. We need to make investments in America’s workers. However, Congress has cut funding to workforce and job retraining programs by $1 billion over the past two years. These programs could be cut further when sequestration is scheduled to take effect on March 1 and as Congress debates budget priorities for the remainder of this year and next. Congress must make America’s workers its top priority and stop cutting programs that get displaced workers the skills that employers are looking for and back to work.”
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