Aug. 6—The nation’s economy hasn’t “turned the corner” for the 8.2 million people who remained out of work in July, according to the July unemployment figures released today by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
While on recent campaign stops, President George W. Bush has claimed the economy “has turned the corner,” yet, the BLS report shows America’s workers still are struggling.
Job creation remains stagnant with just 32,000 new jobs in July, far short of economists’ predictions of 200,000 to 300,000 and the White House promise of 306,000 jobs.
Unemployment remains essentially unchanged at 5.5 percent, compared with 5.6 percent for the past three months.
Some 10.9 percent of African Americans and 6.8 percent of Latinos are out of work, an increase from June.
The economy has lost 1.8 million private-sector jobs since Bush took office.
The average length of unemployment stands at 18.6 weeks. There were 1.7 million long-term unemployed workers in July 2004, up from 660,000 long-term unemployed workers in January 2001.
Long-tenured workers are losing their jobs at the highest rate on record.
Those with jobs are watching their paychecks fall behind the inflation rate.
“Adequate job growth is long overdue and the quality of jobs being created is falling short of what working men and women need to build a future for themselves and their families,” says AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney.
Job Creation More than 270,000 Short of White House Predictions for Growth
The BLS report says the economy gained just 32,000 jobs last month, far short of the Bush administration’s claims that the president’s 2003 tax cuts for the wealthy—Bush’s so-called “Jobs and Growth” package that took effect in July 2003—would create 5.5 million jobs by the end of 2004 or 306,000 a month. July’s job numbers also fail to meet the more conservative estimates by economists surveyed last month by Reuters and other organizations that 200,000 to 300,000 new jobs would be created in July.
The largest job growth in July occurred in low-paying jobs with few or no benefits, according to the BLS. The 10,000 manufacturing jobs BLS says were gained in July leave the nation with a net loss of 2.7 million manufacturing jobs since Bush took office. Some 1.7 million workers have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, according to the BLS. Another 1.2 million have been unemployed between 15 and 26 weeks. Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress repeatedly have refused to extend unemployment insurance benefits to long-term jobless workers.
Long-Tenured Workers Hard Hit in U.S. Jobs Crisis
In other economic news, tenured workers—those with three or more years on the job with the same employer—are losing their jobs at the highest rate ever recorded, according to the BLS. The Economic Policy Institute report, 2001–2003 Worker Displacement Highest on Record, notes that 6.3 percent of long-tenured workers lost their jobs in that time period, when the average unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent. That’s higher than in the past two economic slowdowns, 1981–1983 and 1991–1993, when the unemployment rate stood at 9 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively.
The EPI also reports that during the first two quarters of 2004, U.S. wages and salaries grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent, the slowest rate ever recorded and three-tenths of a percentage point behind inflation in the second quarter.
Another report from a top management scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology shows a majority of America’s working families have suffered a steady erosion of their wages in the past two decades.
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