Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today expressed his optimism over the U.S. Labor Department's announcement that the private sector added 257,000 jobs in January – exceeding the 150,000 estimate projected by economists.

"The job numbers released today show an encouraging trend that our country is on a slow but steady path towards economic recovery.  Still, too many New Mexicans are out of work and struggling to make ends meet.  Job creation needs to be the top priority of Congress and I hope we will be able to work across party lines in the coming months to help Americans get back to work," Bingaman said.

According to the Labor Department, the economy has added private sector jobs for 23 straight months, for a total of 3.7 million payroll jobs over that period. In the last 12 months, 2.2 million private sector jobs were added.