The most recent Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics brought unwelcome news. Job loss last month grew to 467,000 jobs, up nearly 150,000 jobs from May’s loss.
The most recent Employment Situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics brought unwelcome news. Job loss last month grew to 467,000 jobs, up nearly 150,000 jobs from May’s loss.
The unemployment rate inched up to 9.5 percent, the highest rate since 1983. When the broadest measure of unemployment is considered, we are talking 16.5 percent, not 9.5. For African-Americans, the broadest rate borders on 30 percent. Average hourly pay is level, and average weekly pay is down, as some employers are cutting worker hours. Not a day goes by without some job cutback, layoff, pay cut announcement, and most of us are now too acquainted with someone who has lost her job. Nearly six months into the Obama administration, detractors are crying “failed stimulus."
I think it is too early to say that the stimulus package has failed. Money is gradually trickling into states and cities, and perhaps the pace could be picked up, but the matter of process cannot be ignored when stimulus funds are distributed. As vice president Joe Biden correctly observes, we are only four months into the stimulus package – too soon to say the package is a failure.
There is a substantive issue, though, that the Obama administration must address. Is the stimulus package too little, too late? In other words, Republicans have been quick to say the stimulus package has failed because it has not quickly generated enough jobs to counter a labor market that is rapidly hemorrhaging jobs.
At the same time, they were slow to pass the stimulus and were not eager to spend money (except on the financial sector bailout) that would trickle down to working people. If the stimulus package fails (and I do not think it will – job creation is simply easier said than done), will it be because the package is too small to generate the results we need?
The administration needs to replace five million jobs and create new jobs as well. It would be useful to get an estimate from President Obama and his team about when this will happen.
Republicans like House Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) have used the most recent employment report to attack the Obama administration.
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