Obama: ‘The U.S. Right Now Has the Strongest Most Durable Economy in the World’

“...156,000 jobs last month. After reaching 10 percent in 2009, the unemployment rate has now fallen to 4.9 percent, even as more Americans joined the job market last month. So this is the first time that the unemployment rate has dipped below 5 percent in almost eight years. Americans are working. 

All told, over the past six years, our businesses have added 14 million new jobs. Seventy-one straight months of private sector job growth extends the longest streak on record. Over the past two years, 2014 an 2015 our businesses added more jobs than any time since the 1990s. 

Most importantly, this progress is finally starting to translate into bigger paychecks. Over the past six months, wages have grown at their fastest rate since the crisis. And the policies that I’ll push this year are designed to give workers even more leverage to earn raises and promotions.

So unemployment, deficits, gas prices are all down. Jobs, wages, and the rate of the insured are up. I should mention, by the way, that since I signed ObamaCare in the law nearly 18 million Americans have gained coverage and our businesses have created jobs every month since, on net, all of them, full-time jobs. 

So, as I said in my State of the Union address, the United States of America right now has the strongest most durable economy in the world. I know that’s still inconvenient for Republican stump speeches as their doom and despair tour plays in New Hampshire. I guess you cannot please everybody.”