AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released the following statement on the January Jobs report.

January unemployment finally fell below double digits, but our country remains in a serious, deep, and long-term jobs crisis.  We need to create at least 10 million jobs now, and Wall Street and the big banks that created the crisis need to foot the bill. 

We welcome the news that unemployment dropped to 9.7%, but we shed another 20,000 jobs last month, following a revised 150,000 loss in December, and the number of long-term unemployed continues to break records.

These numbers underscore what we have been saying all along.  Working families need bigger and bolder actions –in the short, medium and long term – to create jobs in the immediate future – or we risk permanent scarring of our economy and our workforce.

You can read the rest of the statement here.