June 6, 2008

Washington, DC—Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following statement today in response to a Department of Labor report that U.S. employers cut 49,000 jobs in May – the fifth month in a row of job losses for American workers and businesses:

“With energy prices breaking new records every week, food prices continuing to climb and more than a million American families in foreclosure, today’s news that employers cut 49,000 jobs last month – and 324,000 since this beginning of the year – is troubling.  Even worse, the unemployment rate jumped from 5 percent to 5.5 percent – the highest monthly increase in more than two decades.

“Democrats are fighting to make the American Dream affordable again for middle-class families struggling with the rising cost of living and a shrinking job market.  The Bush-McCain economy has now shed jobs every month of 2008; it is well past time for this Administration to work with us to extend unemployment insurance, and Bush-McCain Republicans must do more than offer the same failed economic strategy that got us into this mess in the first place.”  

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