More Good Economic News

More Good Economic News

Rep. Boozman's Column for the Week of June 7, 2004

Many people in the business community were surprised last week when the Labor Department released the nation's job data for May. They knew that the report would be positive, as the national job picture has been improving in the past few months. What was unexpected was the strong pace that jobs continue to be added across the country.

248,000 new jobs were created in May. Wall Street only predicted 216,000 new jobs in May, but their expectations were exceeded. May's excellent numbers follow an April that saw 308,000 jobs created. Nearly one million new jobs have been added in the last three months alone, making March-May period the strongest for any three months in four years. Our nation is averaging 257,000 news jobs per month since the beginning of the year.

In Arkansas, we are starting to good signs that this recovery is reaching home. In April alone, 700 new jobs were created in our state. A quick flip through the news in the past few months show business investments in Fort Smith, Van Buren and Atkins - among other Arkansas towns - which will result in hundreds of new jobs.

There is no doubt that job creation would not be pushing along at this pace without the economic stimulus packages we passed in Congress in 2001 and 2003. Those bills did exactly what we hoped they would, which was to jumpstart the economy and create an environment where businesses would begin adding employees to their payroll.

As a result of the stimulus packages, over 860,000 Arkansans have more money to spend and it is showing as housing starts are hitting record highs and major purchases are up around the state. Over 200,000 businesses in Arkansas have more money to hire people and purchase new equipment. The vast majority of these are small businesses, which is important to note, as small businesses are responsible for 75% of America's jobs.

In the second half of 2003, our economy grew at its fastest pace in 20 years and people are starting to feel it. Consumer confidence is at its highest level in months. The stock market is up by 40% and the NASDAQ is up almost 70% of their mid-2002 levels.

Critics of the tax cuts continue to talk down the economy, but in doing so, they are ignoring the facts. Our economy is growing and no one can say these latest numbers aren't positive evidence of that. I am confident that, in the coming months, this progress will continue.