Jobs

Dear Friends,

The jobs report for June came out earlier this month.  Here is the first paragraph from the Bureau of Labor Statistics online report (here):

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 125,000 in June, and the
unemployment rate edged down to 9.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today. The decline in payroll employment reflected 
a decrease (-225,000) in the number of temporary employees working on 
Census 2010. Private-sector payroll employment edged up by 83,000.

Here are some additional facts from that report.

There are 14.6 million people unemployed.
There are 6.8 million people who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more.
There are 8.6 million people who are involuntarily working part time instead of full time.

Here is some analysis from an article in The New York Times on July 2 (here):

The 83,000 private sector jobs created in June more than doubled the count in May. In the first six months of 2009, the nation lost 3.7 million private sector jobs; during the first six months of this year it gained 590,000. Manufacturing continued a modest revival, as plants added 9,000 jobs, bringing the total for such jobs to 136,000 since January (manufacturing shed two million jobs early in this recession). Amusement, gambling and recreation businesses added 28,000.

The economy needs to add about 130,000 jobs a month to keep up with population growth.  The official numbers that are most reported understate the unemployment problem, because of those that are forced to work part time and those that are discouraged and not actively looking.

It is critical to our economic recovery that we have significant job growth.  It is job growth that triggers demand which triggers economic activity.  The government can stimulate job growth with infrastructure improvement funding which is much needed in our country.  In the short term, the government can relieve suffering and stimulate the economy by extending the unemployment benefits.

The increase in government spending for infrastructure improvements and unemployment benefits would improve our infrastructure, provide needed relief to those who have lost their jobs, provide a much need stimulus to the economy and provide more jobs.  It is the right thing to do.

So why have I not seen President Obama out on the trail explaining these facts to the American people and pushing back at the Republicans who are against anything that he proposes and the conservative Democrats who have become overly obsessed with the deficit?  The deficit is terrible, but we need jobs right now, and we will need to see an increase in the deficit to get the economy going before we deal with the deficit.

The polls may show that the Republicans have been successful at scaring the American people about the deficit.  The job of a leader is to educate, inform and convince the people of the course of action that the leader believes in.  President Obama has the skills to do that if he wants to lead us out of this recession and back to a time of low unemployment and a high rate of job growth.  I trust he wants to do the right thing.  I hope that I see him out in front leading instead of worrying about the Republicans.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal