So, Congress this week passed a budget bill that did nothing to address the nation’s jobs crisis.

Meanwhile, back in real-world America:

• The unemployment rates rose in more than 90 percent of U.S. cities in June, “mirroring a national slowdown in hiring.” Jobless rates worsened in 345 large metro areas, dropped in 20 cities and were unchanged in seven. That’s worse than May, when rates rose in only 210 cities,  the Labor Department announced yesterday.
• U.S. incomes plummeted again in 2009, with total income down 15.2 percent in real terms since 2007, new tax data showed on Wednesday and reported by Reuters. “The data showed an alarming drop in the number of taxpayers reporting any earnings from a job—down by nearly 4.2 million from 2007—meaning every 33rd household that had work in 2007 had no work in 2009.
• Nearly every economic indicator is down, notes the New York Times today. Economix writer Catherine Rampall analyzed the data in overall economic growth (gross domestic product), jobs,  personal income, length of the workweek, personal spending and industrial production. All down.
• ProPublica compiled a “Sputtering Economy by the Numbers” list that includes a myriad of factoids such as: Total jobs lost since January 2008: 8.7 million. Total jobs recovered since January 2008: 1.8 million. Read the full list here (if you have the stomach for it).
• And then there’s the chart below, showing the United States has hit another record: 45.8 million people are getting food stamps. As Meteor Blads writes on Daily Kos: ”It would be a lot more, but only about 67 percent of the eligible people actually apply.”

America Wants to Work describes the state of the nation as well as the AFL-CIO campaign announced yeterday by the Executive Council. AFL-CIO union members and allies will engage in a fall America Wants to Work mobilization to move the national debate from the right wing’s manufactured debt crisis to the nation’s real crisis: jobs.

The mobilization will kick off on Labor Day, building to a National Week of Action in early October that focuses on the demand for good jobs and demonstrates in communities all across the country that America Wants to Work.