Jan. 9—America’s workers continue to struggle under the Bush administration’s failed economic policies, and new data out today details how the economy is faltering. Year-end figures released today by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that in December wages were flat, work hours dropped and the economy added a paltry 1,000 new jobs overall. The workforce shrank by 309,000 workers, explaining the drop in the nation’s unemployment rate to 5.7 percent.
The beleaguered manufacturing sector experienced its 41st month of job loss, shedding another 26,000 positions, even more than in November. The U.S. Department of Labor also corrected its earlier rosy jobs reports for October and November, reducing job gains in those months by 51,000. All in all, there is nothing to cheer about in today’s jobs report.
The BLS report shows how President George W. Bush has fallen 1,615,000 jobs short of the 1,836,000 new jobs Bush promised that his economic policies, including his 2003 millionaire tax cut package, would create by the end of 2003, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reported.
“Although corporate profits have increased steadily, even during the recession, and worker productivity is at record highs, workers and their families continue to suffer,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
While BLS pegs the official number of unemployed workers at 8.4 million, some 15 million workers are unemployed, underemployed or too discouraged to look for work, Sweeney says.
Bush Falls 305,000 Jobs Short of Promised Job Creation in December Alone
Bush claimed his $330 billion so-called jobs and growth tax cut would help create 5.5 million new jobs by the end of 2004, or 306,000 a month. The 1,000 jobs added to the economy in December left the nation 305,000 jobs short of Bush’s jobs promise in that month alone.
Economists say the inconsistency between the drop in the unemployment rate and the addition of just 1,000 new jobs is explained by two factors. First—and extremely significant—many workers have given up looking for work; the labor force actually fell by 309,000 workers last month. Second, the payroll survey of employers reflects the actual number of jobs in the economy because it is broader and more detailed than the survey that calculates the unemployment rate. Because of the detail involved in the payroll survey, most economists—including the Bush-appointed commissioner of BLS—say the payroll survey is far more reliable.
Bush has presided over the loss of 2.9 million net private-sector jobs since January 2001, including 2.6 million manufacturing jobs. That includes 910,000 private-sector jobs lost since the recession officially ended in November 2001. Among the recoveries from the 10 economic recessions that have occurred since 1945, the Bush jobless recovery is the only that has seen job loss, not large job growth, in the 24 months after the end of the recession, EPI notes.
Republican Congress Leaves Long-Term Unemployed Workers in the Cold
The new year also began on a downbeat job note as new jobless claims rose for the week ending Jan. 3, the BLS reported Jan. 8. More than 353,000 people filed new claims for state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits that week, compared with 339,000 the previous week. There are three jobless workers for every job opening.
At the same time, approximately 270,000 workers who have run out of their state UI benefits without finding a job are not protected by federal unemployment insurance. Bush and the Republican-led Congress allowed the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program to expire Dec. 21. Since then, an estimated 80,000 to 90,000 jobless workers a week are running out of their state unemployment insurance and have neither jobs nor emergency federal benefits to fall back on.
The TEUC program gives workers who have exhausted their state UI benefits an additional 13 weeks of federal UI. They can receive a total of 26 weeks of federal benefits in states with unusually high unemployment.
U.S. House and Senate Democrats have introduced legislation (H.R. 3244 and S. 1708)—which Republican leaders refused to act on before Congress adjourned—that would extend the TEUC program through June 30 and provide 26 weeks of additional benefits. In addition to helping workers who exhaust their regular state unemployment insurance, the bill would provide essential support to workers who already have received and exhausted their federal benefits under the current law.
“It is simply unconscionable and callous that President Bush and Republican congressional leaders are deliberately denying basic support to the working families hurt most by the economic downturn,” Sweeney says.
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Track the Bush administration job promises at the EPI’s
JobWatch website.
