After the U.S. Department of Labor released the latest jobs and unemployment numbers, which showed that job growth has slowed (in 2016, the average monthly job growth was 187,000, in 2017 it has dropped to 174,000 per month), DNC Chair and former Labor Secretary Tom Perez issued the following statement:

“For the past 10 months, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Republicans in Congress have tried to take away people’s health care, slashed funding for critical education and job training programs, and pushed a tax plan that rewards the wealthy and special interests at the expense of the middle class. So it should come as no surprise that since Trump took office, average monthly job growth has slowed compared to the same 10-month period last year under President Obama. Meanwhile, Trump has failed to fulfill his promises to bring back manufacturing jobs and stop companies from sending jobs overseas. And Trump’s own businesses continue to contradict his own ‘Hire American’ slogan by bringing in foreign workers at his properties even though many Americans are eager for the jobs.

“President Obama and Democratic leaders stabilized the U.S. economy after the Great Recession by lifting up working families, and we will keep fighting Trump’s attacks on the middle class so we don’t see another economic disaster like we did at the end of the last Republican administration.”