Moving in the Right Direction

Moving in the Right Direction

Last week brought good news about our economy. Jobs numbers are up. Manufacturing is up. The unemployment rate is down. This is good news. By the numbers:

• Total non-farm payroll employment rose by 295,000 in February, as private-sector employment rose by 288,000.
• February marked the twelfth consecutive month of job growth above 200,000, the first time that this has happened since 1994-95.
• Private-sector job growth has also been above 200,000 for twelve straight months for the first time since December 1977.
• Manufacturing added 8,000 jobs in February and has added 877,000 jobs over the past 60 months.
• Auto industry employment rose by 6,000 in February.

And today, Ford launched the all-new F-150 in Claycomo. The Kansas City Assembly Plant now has the largest capacity to build vehicles of any Ford plant in the world. Employing more than 7,000 workers, the plant has one of the largest hourly workforces in the Ford network.

Last month, Ford announced that it would create an additional 900 jobs in Kansas City, Missouri to build the F-150. In September, Ford announced 1,200 new jobs and a second shift to build the all-new Ford Transit van, previously manufactured exclusively overseas.

This is the strongest period of job growth in the manufacturing sector since the 1980s. In addition, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers in the manufacturing sector remained just shy of its highest level since World War II. Since Chrysler and GM emerged from bankruptcy in mid-2009, the auto industry (including manufacturing and retail) has added 562,300 jobs, the industry's strongest growth on record.

Still, we can and must do more.

We should create economy-boosting jobs by:
1. Investing in economic infrastructure — like energy, transportation and communications.
2. Helping more people get world-class education and hands-on training.
3. Putting more money in the pockets of middle-class families, because paycheck growth drives economic growth.

Hard-working middle class families need jobs that pay enough to get ahead — enough to own a home, send their kids to college and save for retirement.

Middle-class families are the engine of our economy. To keep our economy growing, we need to create economy-boosting jobs that pay enough for hard-working families to get ahead. Republican policies stick Americans with economy-busting jobs that don't pay enough to help people get ahead or keep our economy growing. My colleagues, it seems, want to give tax cuts to billionaires who don't need them rather than invest in economic infrastructure that paves the way for economic growth, or in world-class education and hands-on training for hard-working Americans.

I will continue to focus my efforts on creating jobs and keeping our economy moving in the right direction. It is what is necessary – and what is right for the people of Missouri's Fifth District.