GOP Leader Blog
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Unemployment Rate Hits 9.7 Percent; Where are the Jobs?
Posted by
Kevin Boland
on
September 04, 2009
The national unemployment rate spiked to 9.7 percent last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning - despite the fact that the Administration pledged that unemployment wouldn't top eight percent if Congress hurried up and passed a 1,000 plus page $1 trillion "stimulus" before anyone had a chance to even read the bill. Since February of this year, when the "stimulus" became law, nearly two and a half million Americans have lost their jobs. The rise in the unemployment rate wasn't the only sobering news released today, however. Those Americans fortunate enough to have jobs are finding themselves underemployed - working less hours and receiving less compensation for hours worked, as the Financial Times reported:
The Federal Reserve said in its latest meeting minutes that it expected the unemployment rate to continue to rise and breach the 10 percent mark by the end of the year, and only gradually to decline in 2010. Long-term unemployment is also becoming an issue, as workers' skills start to erode, further complicating the allocation of new jobs... The average working week remained flat at 33.1 hours. This remains close to a record low and economists suggest that an expansion in working hours will have to come before new hiring begins.And the Wall Street Journal noted that: Today's jobs numbers showed that the Labor Department's index of aggregate hours worked by Americans was at 98.9 in August, down steeply from a second quarter average of 99.7. That's from a combination of job cuts, reductions in overtime and other cuts to work shifts. Let's assume there's no change in hours worked in September. That would mean the total amount of hours that Americans worked in the third quarter would be down at about a 2.8% annual rate.The Wall Street Journal also reported on a broader measure of unemployment, known as "U-6," ticked up to a record high 16.8 percent. The Journal explains that U-6 "includes everyone in the official rate plus "marginally attached workers" - those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently; and people who are employed part-time for economic reasons, meaning they want full-time work but took a part-time schedule instead because that's all they could find." House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) commented that: In light of these numbers, it is more clear than ever that the President and the leaders of his party in Congress need to abandon their plans for a job-killing government takeover of health care and work with Republicans for a more responsible approach to health care reform. The Democrats' bloated 'stimulus' isn't working, and we can't afford another trillion-dollar mistake on the backs of our children and small businesses.After the trillions of dollars spent by Washington Democrats, which was sold to the American people as "necessary" to prevent unemployment from rising further, millions of middle-class families and small businesses across America are asking a simple question: where are the jobs? They're still waiting for an answer from Democrats. |