"With more normal conditions, it
is likely that the economy would have added a small number
of jobs in the month......some of
the data in the report clearly is positive. For example,
manufacturing showed job growth (just 1.0 percent) for the
second consecutive month. It seems likely that the plunge
in manufacturing employment is over, although there is no
reason to believe there will be a sharp upturn in hiring
any time soon.....In sum, this report is consistent with
an economy that would not have lost jobs in the month, had
it not been for the weather. However, there is absolutely
no reason to believe that any substantial uptick in employment
is imminent. "Baker,
CEPR, 3/5/10
Job market stuck on ‘‘pause’’"The
$15 billion jobs bill passed by the Senate and the House
is, unfortunately, about 30 times too small. The bill, which
would give employers tax breaks for new hires, is likely
to create only a couple of hundred thousand jobs, while
the hole that this downturn has torn in the labor market
is now at 11.1 million jobs. If Congress doesn’t act
quickly and at a sufficient scale, we will see crippling
rates of unemployment for years." Shierholz,
EPI, 3/5/10
"At
this point in the economic cycle a lack of robust job creation
is a worrisome trend for workers and for our economy. Given
the breadth and depth of the recession, our economy needs
a sharp upturn in job creation to come out of its current
malaise. The economy has shed 8.4 million jobs since the
recession began in December 2007 and the economy would need
to add about 250,000 each month for the next three years
just to regain the jobs lost.....It remains the case that
those without work are having an extremely difficult time
finding new employment. A near-record 4 in 10 unemployed
workers, or 6.1 million, have been out of work and searching
for a job for at least six months, and there are six workers
vying for every job opening available. It is taking the
typical worker over 19 weeks to find a new job.
It is these workers who need Congress to
extend jobless benefits. Yet the Senate has only voted to
extend them for an additional 30 days. Congress should act
quickly to extend jobless benefits and introduce an effective
“off trigger” so that the unemployed in states
that are continuing to see high unemployment and extended
periods of joblessness are not unreasonably cut off from
much-needed benefits. This trigger should be set so that
states keep extended unemployment benefits until their economies
are in recovery, rather than a hard deadline for the nation
as a whole."CAP
Boushey, 3/5/10
The
National Jobs for All Coalition is a project of the Council
on Public and International Affairs.
National
Jobs for All Coalition
c/o Council on International & Public Affairs [CIPA]
777 United Nations Plaza, Suite 3C
Tel:
212-972-9879. fax is 212-972-9878.
NY, NY 10017
Email: njfac [at]
njfac.org
