Today marked a milestone in unemployment rates. For the first time since 1983, the United States reached an unemployment rate of 10.2 percent. AP reports that about 16 Million Americans are without jobs and for another consecutive month jobs were cut from the market: 190,000 this month to be exact.
A couple weeks ago when the GDP grew at 3.5 percent, many officials declared that this was the beginning of the end for the recession that has plagued the United States.
AP states:
“Friday’s report is the first since the government said last week that the economy grew at a 3.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, the strongest signal yet that the economy is rebounding. But that isn’t fast enough to spur rapid hiring, raising the specter of a jobless recovery.
“In addition, many economists worry that persistently high unemployment could undermine the recovery by restraining consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy.
“One sign of how hard it still is to find a job: the number of Americans who have been out of work for six months or longer rose to 5.6 million, a record. They comprise 35.6 percent of the unemployed population, matching a record set last month.”
What our country is plagued by is a lack of job creation. This major crisis is not only affecting Americans and their quality of life, but also the future of the economy. Like the AP article stated, if unemployment rates continue to rise, consumer spending with seriously decline. A study done by the Discover Spending Monitor found that:
“56% of Americans rated the economy as “poor” in October, a 4% increase over September. In addition, 46% said the economy is getting worse, a 3% increase over September.”
Many Americans are worried about their finances this year and with the holiday season rapidly approaching, Americans will be cutting their spending budget.
Over the past 11 months of the new Administration, there’s been much talk, but very little done to really address the problem of growing unemployment. Sure, the so-called “stimulus” bill was supposedly about creating jobs. In June, Vice President Biden boasted:
“The bottom line is that jobs are being created that would not have been there before.”
Unfortunately the stats suggest that Mr. Biden was plain wrong. The unemployment rate continues to rise in the United States and the job creation that was promised under the stimulus package is nowhere to be seen. The Obama Administration needs to tackle this crisis: instead of focusing all their time and attention on passing another job crushing bill-their trillion dollar health care package-they need to focus on job creation. They should start by considering how they could help small businesses, which generate 70 percent of new jobs. The American people know that we are facing a job crisis that needs to be fixed immediately before it gets worse. Does the White House?