11:28 a.m. EST February 7, 2015 WASHINGTON -- Both the White House and its Republican opposition praised Friday's jobs report, but tempered their enthusiasm with concerns about stagnant wages and people who have left the workforce.
Employers added a higher-than-expected 257,000 jobs in January, while the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.7% as more Americans reentered the labor force.
The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said the report was "welcome news."
"Still, this recovery is too fragile for far too many. And in the long-term unemployed there's a lot of potential that we are still not tapping," Ryan said.
One persistent criticism of the jobs numbers is that the unemployment rate fails to account for unemployed workers who have dropped out of the labor force entirely. That was the gist of the statement from Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
"We're thankful to see that Americans were able to go back to work in January, but before the White House spikes the football, they need to come to terms with a troubling fact: There are millions of Americans who are struggling to find jobs," Priebus said.
But Furman noted that the labor participation rate rate rose to 62.9% in January and has been relatively stable throughout the recent job growth, suggesting that the gradual decline in unemployment is being fueled by new jobs.
One concern: Wage growth continues to be stagnant. On paper, the average wage growth for non-supervisoryu workers has grown 2% over the past year -- but half of that growth has been eaten up by inflation, meaning it's "still below rates needed to overcome the long-standing challenge in this area."
Furman warned that "brinksmanship and unnecessary austerity" could jeopardize future job gains, as Congress threatens to withhold Homeland Security funding in a showdown over the president's enforcement of immigration laws.
Ryan said the best way to improve job growth would be to pass legislation encouraging exports and reforming the tax code.
