Obama: ‘We’ve Now Had 56 Consecutive Months of Job Growth’

‘We’ve actually created more jobs here in the United States than every other advanced country combined ... we are doing something right here’

"As I said the other night, obviously Republicans had a good night and I congratulated both Mitch McConnell as well as Speaker Boehner for running very strong campaigns. As I also said the day after the election, what we have seen now for a number of cycles is the American people just want to see work done here in Washington. I think they are frustrated by the gridlock, they would like to see more cooperation and I think all of us have the responsibility, me in particular, to try to make that happen. So this gives us a good opportunity to explore where we can make progress on behalf of the people who sent us here.

The good news is today we saw another good set of jobs numbers. We now have 56 consecutive months of job growth. More than 10.6 million jobs have been created and the unemployment rate is now down to 5.8 percent. So business is out there investing, hiring. The economic indicators are going in the right direction. As I travel to Asia for the G20 summit, I'm going to be able to say that we have actually created more jobs here in the United States than every other advanced country combined. And they notice that we're doing something right here, but what we also know is the American people are still anxious about their futures.

That means what we can do together to ensure that young people can afford college; what we can do together to rebuild our infrastructure so we're competitive going forward; what we can do to make sure we have a tax system that is fair and simple and unleashes the dynamism of the economy; what we can do together to make sure we keep the progress that we have been making in reducing the deficit while still making investments we need to grow. Those are all going to be areas where I am very interested in hearing and sharing ideas.

And one thing that I've committed to both Speaker Boehner and leader McConnell is that I am not going to judge ideas based on whether they are Democratic or Republican. I'm going to be judging them based on whether or not they work. And I'm confident they want to produce results as well on behalf of American people. So I appreciate their graciousness for coming here and I’m very much looking forward to giving them some updates on progress we have been making on issues like Ebola and ISIL.

There's going to be some specific work that has to get done during next several weeks before the new Congress commences, and my hope is that even as we enter into a new Congress, the previous Congress has the opportunity still to make progress on whole bunch of fronts and I am confident we can get that done. Thank you again."

 

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