Obama Jobs Deficit Hits 8.3 Million, Another No-Jobs Bill Pending in Congress
J.D. Foster /
President Obama announced a renewed focus on jobs in his State of the Union address. His budget stated (PDF) “it is critical that we take steps to jump-start job creation”. He’s right, of course. He is also explicitly admitted the failure of last year’s $862 billion “jump-start” stimulus program. On March 4, the House passed yet another admission of failure as it moved a $17.6 billion mini jobs bill built around an ineffective hiring tax credit and highway spending. Why another bill? Because even politicians cannot duck the data forever, such as today’s jobs report released by the Labor Department which means the Obama jobs deficit stands at 8.3 million workers.
According to the latest report (PDF), the U.S. economy shed another 36,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate stands at 9.7 percent, almost double the rate thought consistent with full employment. Further, the only reason the unemployment rate isn’t higher still is that millions of Americans have left the workforce altogether as shown by a drop in the labor force participation rate to 64.8 percent from a peak in 2007 of 66.4 percent.
The economy’s continued poor performance means President Obama is falling further and further behind on his promise to create millions of new jobs. Obama promised that if elected he would create 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 through new economic policies, beginning with the enactment of a massive economic stimulus package. Accompanying his jobs promise, the President also emphasized accountability and measuring his presidency by results. The result of the President’s jobs promise means total employment which in February stood at 129.5 million should be at least 137.8 million by the end of 2010, leaving the Obama jobs deficit at almost 8.3 million jobs. (more…)