WASHINGTON, DC—Edward Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD), issued the following statement in response to the September jobs report released today:
“Transportation workers are seeing their ranks grow steadily under job-creating policies put forth by President Obama. The latest jobs report, in which 114,000 jobs were added last month pushing the unemployment rate below 8% for the first time since January 2009, included a 17.1% increase in transportation and warehousing jobs from August.
“President Obama’s efforts to steadily improve the economy and create jobs are coming to fruition. For the transit and ground passenger transportation sector alone, 9,200 jobs were created just in the last month, a 9.2% increase over August. The rail sector saw an increase of 1,400 jobs. While more needs to be done to create and sustain employment across all modes of transportation, we know the president’s focus on middle-class job creation is working, and is putting our economy on the right trajectory.
“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the auto industry rescue, and other transportation investments pushed by the president contributed to 31 consecutive months of job growth and 5.2 million new private sector jobs.
“We are also encouraged that highway, street and bridge construction jobs continue to show growth, adding 3,100 jobs in September to an already impressive quarter. It is unfortunate that congressional Republicans blocked the president’s American Jobs Act, which Moody’s predicted would have created 1.9 million additional jobs and strengthened our economy.
“It is peculiar that presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who by his own admission is a boss who ‘likes firing people,’ called adding 114,000 jobs in September a ‘disappointing unemployment report.’
“This jobs report is another clear reminder of the choice in this election for our members. It is a choice between a president who has made modernizing and expanding our transportation system a centerpiece of his economic agenda, and his opponent whose plan for America would cut ½ a million transportation jobs in his first year in office through reckless budget-slashing.”
CONTACT: Jennifer Michels, 202.628.9262 (M) 703.395.2195, jenniferm@ttd.org
The Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, represents 32 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, motor carrier, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit us at ttd.org or on Facebook and Twitter.
