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Today's job numbers show that the U.S. economy has great underlying strength. Despite the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, payrolls declined only 35,000, a much lower figure than expected and also less than the combined upward revisions of 77,000 jobs in the previous two months, Secretary Snow stated. We would not be seeing this kind of performance in the face of such a great challenge unless the fundamentals of our economy were exceptionally strong.