Today, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) released the following statement on the April jobs report issued today:

“The significant increase in jobs for April, added to the upward revision for March, marks the beginning of a recovery from the job-killing Bush recession. More than a half million jobs have now been created in the last two months, which if we take further steps to build on this progress means an annual job increase of well over three million.

“From a policy standpoint, this means two things. First, the efforts by President Obama and Congress to stabilize the economy and increase employment have begun to work. Two, these figures argue strongly for building on these initial successes and adopting further measures to encourage further job creation. That is, these initial signs of success argue for doing more of what is beginning to work.

“The fact that the unemployment rate has moved upward even as we have created more than a half million jobs in two months not only is an argument for intensifying our efforts, but indicates that confidence in the economy is beginning to return, as hundreds of thousands of formally discouraged workers decide to become active job seekers.

“In the face of these results, continued efforts by right-wing Republicans to block jobs legislation have no economic justification and can only be motivated by fears that our efforts to undo the devastating effects of the Bush recession will succeed.”

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