The abysmal jobs report released today, on the eve of the Labor Day holiday, a holiday that this year won’t be filled with happy picnics for many American families, inspired me to compare how we are faring this Labor Day with how the country was doing a year ago this time, as reflected on Inkwell.
On September 7, 2010, Hadley returned from her Labor Day respite to comment:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August numbers Friday, and they are discouraging. Although the unemployment rate changed little (from 9.4% in July to 9.6% in August), one important change in August was the surge in underemployment rates. …
These aren’t just statistics; these are people. The solution isn’t in more bad government policies and programs – the answer is in the private sector. The private sector is the only place where jobs were actually created in August: 67,000 jobs. …
And that number could have been much higher had business leaders had more certainty about how to best use their resources. It’s time for the government to step back and remember the limits of their role as put forth in the Constitution
This is an item that, with minor jiggering with the figures (unemployment is at 9.1 percent right now, still harmful for all too many suffering families, but for that improvement we are still glad), Hadley could post this item today.
There is a message here, and the message is that President Obama’s policies aren’t working. Hadley could make the same observation, that it’s time for government to step back and let the private sector create jobs, today. I wonder how many new regulations we’ve seen to burden the struggling private sector since last Labor Day.
My prediction is that, unless the president has a change of philosophy, which is hardly likely, Hadley can post this item next year. To borrow a concept from James Carville:
It’s the policies, Stupid!