Tell the Senate to Help the Jobless
For over a year, JwJ has been sounding the alarm that we are in an economic crisis calling for bold action and that there is no such thing as a "jobless recovery." But leaders in Washington DC still don't get it.
What we really need is a major jobs creation program, but the 15 million jobless Americans need support - NOW!
Tell your Senators to support jobless workers!
There are still nearly 6 people looking for every job opening, and even optimistic projections suggest it will take 5-6 years before the unemployment rate drops to pre-recession levels. If all the jobless Americans stood shoulder to shoulder, they would stretch across America -- twice.
Unless Congress acts, 300,000 people will run out of unemployment benefits next week. Unless Congress continues jobless benefits, like the subsidy for COBRA payments, 144,000 per month will likely lose health coverage.
Comments
Dig a little deeepr in the data and the picture isn't quite so good ... Michigan's labor force shrank by 1% in 2011 (after declining more than 2% in 2010), while employment grew by 1% of the labor force in 2011 (after growing by about 0.8% of the labor force in 2010). So enough jobs are being created to keep up with the average growth of the labor force, while unemployment declines mainly because the current situation incites people to either give up or move away. On the whole, this does represent an improvement of sorts (because the people who move to areas with lower unemployment are likely better off, and there is job growth in the state), but I don't think I would use this state as a model case of improvement. My vote for "most improved" would be Texas ... according to BLS, employment growth there was among the three best states on a percentage basis over the last year, the other two being North Dakota, which is already in great shape, and Utah, where the labor force also seems to be declining. The Texas labor force grew by 1% last year, while job growth was 2%.
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