Statement

Continuing a disturbing trend, national labor figures were released today, and the numbers indicate that many Americans have all but given up on this economy.

According new figures, the number of people, who have given up looking for work and are no longer participating in the workforce, rose to all-time new record high of 88,921,000, which caused the national labor participation rate to fall to 63.5% in August. This is nothing new for West Virginia, where we have the worst labor participation rate in the U.S., meaning fewer people are working in West Virginia than in any other state in the nation. West Virginia's labor participation, at 54.3%, is almost 10% lower than the national average. The jobs crisis has been especially acute in Southern West Virginia, where more than 2500 coal miners have lost their jobs in the past 8 months.

"The Obama-Tomblin economy continues to devastate West Virginia families," stated gubernatorial candidate Bill Maloney. "BarackObama's War on Coal is running roughshod over West Virginia coal miners, and Earl Ray is supporting Obama instead of West Virginia families."

"Even though the War on Coal is killing West Virginia jobs, Earl Ray didn't attend the Democratic Convention in Charlotte this week to stop Obama's War on Coal," Maloney continued. "Instead, Earl Ray ran off to luxury resort in Pennsylvania on the taxpayer's plane to fundraise for his own re-election," said Maloney.

"How many more thousands of West Virginians need to lose their jobs before Earl Ray decides to stand up for West Virginia?" questioned Maloney.
"Make no mistake about where I stand: I will do everything I can to make sure Obama is replaced in November. And when I am governor, I will defeat Obama's War on Coal, help create new jobs, and end the culture of corruption in our state," concluded Maloney.