Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 431,000 jobs were created in May and the unemployment rate dropped from 9.9 percent to 9.7 percent. Behind the seemingly rosy headline number, however, was disappointing private sector job growth, which contributed only 41,000 to the overall figure. The rest of the jobs are temporary employment due to the 2010 Census. Analysts had predicted private sector job growth of more than 100,000 and for the overall economy to add more than 500,000 jobs. "Today's release of the latest employment numbers by the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirms fears that the nascent economic recovery is not yet taking hold in the jobs market," wrote Center for American Progress Senior Economist Heather Boushey. "Clearly there is still much to do to get our economy back to full employment." State and local governments also shed 22,000 jobs, which as the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) pointed out, "remains an ongoing drag on employment growth." "In the boom of the late 1990s, the fastest year of employment growth was 2.6% in 1998. If we could achieve that same extremely strong level of growth from this point forward, we would still not get down to pre-recession unemployment rates until January 2015," noted EPI's Heidi Shierholz. Despite the weakness of the labor market, Congress has been reluctant to approve additional job creation measures or to take crucial steps to alleviate the economic hardships of those already unemployed.
THE LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYED: In May, a record-high 46 percent of the unemployed had been without a job for 27 weeks or more. Since March, the percentage of unemployed workers who have been jobless for that length of time has climbed from 44 to 46 percent (increasing from 6.5 to 6.7 million workers). Currently, the average duration of unemployment is 34 weeks -- two months longer than the traditional length of unemployment benefits (26 weeks) -- while more than one million people have been out of work for two years. As the Washington Independent's Annie Lowrey put it, when it comes to long-term unemployment, "crisis is the appropriate word." According to the National Employment Law Project (NELP), men account for six out of each 10 workers who are long-term unemployed, while workers over 45 make up the largest age cohort. "Long-term unemployment has also affected certain racial groups more than others," NELP pointed out. "Blacks, for example, make up 17.8% of the pool of unemployed workers but 20.8% of the long-term unemployed." The U.S. labor force also lost 322,000 workers in May, as discouraged workers gave up looking for work.
PROGRAMS FOR LAID OFF WORKERS EXPIRE: Despite the crisis of long-term unemployment, the Senate adjourned for its Memorial Day recess without approving an extension of unemployment benefits that has been passed by the House of Representatives. Because of the Senate's failure to act, 1.2 million workers lost their extended benefits during the first week of this month. (The extension does not create a new tier of benefits beyond the maximum 99 weeks, but extends eligibility deadlines for the program. Workers who have exhausted their 99 weeks won't gain new benefits, even if the Senate acts.) In addition, even though the House was able to extend jobless benefits, it did not extend the enhanced COBRA program, which helps laid off workers purchase health insurance, after conservative members of the lower chamber expressed concerns about the cost. Consumers make up about 70 percent of our economy, and as these laid-off workers cut back, it will have detrimental effects on the wider economy. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman pointed out that "as these families are forced to slash spending, they will endanger the jobs of many more. And that's just the beginning. More and more, conventional wisdom says that the responsible thing is to make the unemployed suffer. And while the benefits from inflicting pain are an illusion, the pain itself will be all too real."
MORE CAN BE DONE: Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN) voted against the jobless benefits extension, saying "last year, I held my nose. But the economy is starting to get on its feet again." A spokesman for Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) echoed that sentiment, telling the National Journal that "it's time to demonstrate that we're serious about cutting the deficit." Such all-consuming focus on the short-term deficit is not only holding Congress back from helping laid-off workers, but is also preventing serious and necessary job creation measures from being considered. While the economic Recovery Act has greatly helped, creating or saving 2.8 million jobs, and up to 3.7 million by September, according to the Congressional Budget Office, other job creating legislation has languished. For instance, the Local Jobs for America Act of 2010, introduced by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), would create or save approximately 1 million jobs by protecting state and local government jobs and create local government and nonprofit-sector jobs. "This is the kind of legislative action that is needed to break the pattern of lingering unemployment and slowing wage growth," Boushey noted.
"The Progress Report"
