Recognizing the social, economic and political threat posed by
double-digit unemployment numbers, and by the prospect that those
numbers are continuing to rise, key Democratic senators are proposing
an innovative two-year plan to spend as much as $600 million to avert
layoffs.
President Obama has announced a White House Jobs Summit for next
month. At least that's the beginning of recognition that the
unemployment rate is unacceptable. The measured rate is now 10.2
percent, but if you count people who have given up or who are
involuntarily working part time, the real rate is over 17 percent.
The recession is over! The economy is growing! The Dow Jones is above 10,000! Bankers are pocketing profits and fat bonuses! Happy days are here again!
Unless, of course, you're just a regular working stiff struggling
with falling income and rising unemployment - and sensing that your
family's grip on middle-class life is steadily slipping away. Welcome
to America's tinkle-down economy.
If I were a close adviser of President Obama's, I would say to him,
"Mr. President, you have two urgent and overwhelming tasks in front of
you: to put Americans trapped in this terrible employment crisis back
to work and to put the brakes on your potentially disastrous plan to
escalate the war in Afghanistan."
Unemployment has soared above 10 percent, but that figure doesn't
count those forced to work part-time, those who have given up in
despair, young people who were never able to get hired. There are now
25 million people unemployed.
For African Americans, it is worse. African Americans are
experiencing a silent depression. Unemployment is more than 18 percent;
underemployment even higher. And among black teens, unemployment is
more than 40 percent.
America's rate of unemployment crossed the 10 per cent mark in October to reach a 26-year high after jobless figures rose by 190,000 last month.
The non-farm payroll figure is above forecasts that 176,000 jobs had been lost last month. The rate of unemployment in America is now 10.2 per cent -- the highest since April 1983. The Dow Jones industrial average fell by 45.5 points to 9,960.46.
While October's job losses are above expectations, the total is below the 219,000 cuts recorded in September.
Whenever I think of the
smiley-face icon, I think of Wal-Mart because of its once-ubiquitous ad
campaign. And when I think of Wal-Mart, I think of crappy wages and
insecure employees who probably live paycheck to paycheck. That
metaphor -- the happy face fronting a world of worry -- is the subject
of a new book, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America , by social commentator Barbara Ehrenreich.
With the official unemployment rate nearly 10 percent, now is no time to let talk of recovery deter us from concern for the suffering of the unemployed. The unemployment rate continues to grow and will likely do so even if a modest growth in statistical GDP is under way. Paul Krugman points out that “comparing actual GDP since the recession began with what it would have been if the economy had continued growing at its 1999-2007 trend, we’re something like 8 percent below where we should be.
Five days before taking the oath of office, Barack Obama called on the millions of people who had actively campaigned for him to be the engine for real change in America: "I don't want them to just sit around and wait for me to do something. I want them to be pushing their agendas."
He asked for it, so let's shove this agenda into his line of vision: jobs. Middle-class jobs. Jobs with a future. Jobs doing useful work that contributes to American progress and the common good. Lots and lots of those jobs.
WASHINGTON - The U.S. poverty rate hit its highest level in 11 years in 2008 as the worst recession since the Great Depression threw millions of Americans out of work, a government report showed on Thursday.
The Census Bureau said the poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent in 2008, the highest level since 1997, from 12.5 percent in 2007. About 39.8 million Americans were living in poverty, up from 37.3 million in 2007.
The government defines poverty as an annual income of $22,025 for a family of four, $17,163 for a family of three and $14,051 for a family of two.
