In three straight recent weekly addresses, Republicans have asserted that "excessive government regulations" are keeping businesses from creating jobs.
On the contrary, recent government data proves that in the third quarter of 2010 only 0.4 percent of jobs were lost due to government regulations or intervention.
"With our economy struggling and red tape still piling up, these nuisances have become full-blown government barriers to job creation," Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) said in an early October video.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) asks executives to report the biggest reasons for layoffs. Data released last week showed that out of 1,870 layoffs, only six -- or about 0.4 percent -- in the third quarter of 2010 were due to "Governmental regulations/intervention." That number dropped even further in the first two quarters of 2011.
By comparison, almost 35 percent of layoffs were due to business demand.
"Based on the available literature, there’s not much evidence that EPA regulations are causing major job losses or major job gains," Richard Morgenstern, a former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official who now works at the nonpartisan think tank Resources for the Future, told The Washington Post.
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