“I’m happy to see this report shows we continue to see steady [payroll] growth, but we still need to do a lot more,” says Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. “We need to do everything we can to help create more jobs.”
Among the things Secretary Solis is doing is continuing to prod Congress on advancing legislation such as the Transportation Bill and proposals to create jobs for teachers, firefighters and police hit by state and local government cuts.
“Proposals sitting on the Hill now for about 10 months could create about 1 million jobs in construction and in the public sector,” Solis says. “We can do a lot if we can just sit down and be civil about the discussion and work through it. Given the political climate right now there’s posturing going on.”
“Obviously we want to see tax cuts for the middle class but we don’t think those at very top…necessarily need to have more tax breaks,” she said. “It hasn’t trickled down. We think the best way is a balanced approach” of middle class tax cuts and “efforts to reign in budget spending.”
