The latest unemployment figures set a record for the tenure of Republican George W. Bush and are the highest since December 1992. Then, 9.557 million people were unemployed – and Bush\'s father was president.
The September statistics, the last ones before the Nov. 4 election, may actually understate the problem. That\'s because BLS\' survey was done in the first week of September, before the government took over Fannie Mae, AIG and Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns imploded, Merrill Lynch was sold and Wall Street collapsed, taking the economy with it. Nonetheless, financial services firms lost 17,000 jobs last month.
The number of unemployed in September is 59% higher than the day Bush took office. The January 2001 employment report, the last under Democratic President Bill Clinton, showed 5.956 million jobless and a 4% unemployment rate. There are now 3.52 million more jobless than when Bush entered the Oval Office.
The gloomy figures provide more evidence the nation is in its second recession under Bush.
"We interrupt the financial meltdown to remind you that the nation\'s payrolls have been contracting for nine months in a row," quipped Jared Bernstein, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the figures further illustrate the need for Congress to pass a stimulus package that would lengthen jobless benefits to 39 weeks, and provide infrastructure spending for construction jobs, among other things.
"What will it take for our elected leaders to help Main Street?" he asked. "Our nation lost another 159,000 jobs last month, bringing the total number of jobs lost this year to 760,000." That number "should set off alarm bells at every level about the need to pass an economic stimulus package and provide real help to stem the continuing flood of foreclosures before asking taxpayers to bail out Wall Street.
"The middle class is collapsing. Across the country, more and more workers are facing long-term unemployment with little hope for finding any job, let alone one that pays the bills," Sweeney declared.
BLS figures confirm his statement. In September, 21.1% of the jobless were out of work more than 26 weeks, meaning they exhausted their unemployment benefits. That\'s up 1.6 percentage points in one month and 3.5 points in one year.
Job declines were across the board, spreading beyond factories (-51,000) and construction (-35,000) to retail trade (-40,000), services (-82,000), trucking
(-12,000), airlines (-5,000) and elsewhere. Service job gains usually counter factory job losses, but not in September.
The September jobless rate in construction was 9.9%, compared to 5.8% a year ago. And 984,000 construction workers are jobless. Even the high price of gasoline showed up in the figures: Not only did the auto companies shed another 18,000 workers in September – down to 845,000 – but the crash in car sales led auto dealers to cut 10,000 jobs and the $4-a-gallon pump price produced 6,000 fewer service station jobs.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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The latest unemployment figures set a record for the tenure of Republican George W. Bush and are the highest since December 1992. Then, 9.557 million people were unemployed – and Bush\’s father was president.
The September statistics, the last ones before the Nov. 4 election, may actually understate the problem. That\’s because BLS\’ survey was done in the first week of September, before the government took over Fannie Mae, AIG and Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns imploded, Merrill Lynch was sold and Wall Street collapsed, taking the economy with it. Nonetheless, financial services firms lost 17,000 jobs last month.
The number of unemployed in September is 59% higher than the day Bush took office. The January 2001 employment report, the last under Democratic President Bill Clinton, showed 5.956 million jobless and a 4% unemployment rate. There are now 3.52 million more jobless than when Bush entered the Oval Office.
The gloomy figures provide more evidence the nation is in its second recession under Bush.
"We interrupt the financial meltdown to remind you that the nation\’s payrolls have been contracting for nine months in a row," quipped Jared Bernstein, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said the figures further illustrate the need for Congress to pass a stimulus package that would lengthen jobless benefits to 39 weeks, and provide infrastructure spending for construction jobs, among other things.
"What will it take for our elected leaders to help Main Street?" he asked. "Our nation lost another 159,000 jobs last month, bringing the total number of jobs lost this year to 760,000." That number "should set off alarm bells at every level about the need to pass an economic stimulus package and provide real help to stem the continuing flood of foreclosures before asking taxpayers to bail out Wall Street.
"The middle class is collapsing. Across the country, more and more workers are facing long-term unemployment with little hope for finding any job, let alone one that pays the bills," Sweeney declared.
BLS figures confirm his statement. In September, 21.1% of the jobless were out of work more than 26 weeks, meaning they exhausted their unemployment benefits. That\’s up 1.6 percentage points in one month and 3.5 points in one year.
Job declines were across the board, spreading beyond factories (-51,000) and construction (-35,000) to retail trade (-40,000), services (-82,000), trucking
(-12,000), airlines (-5,000) and elsewhere. Service job gains usually counter factory job losses, but not in September.
The September jobless rate in construction was 9.9%, compared to 5.8% a year ago. And 984,000 construction workers are jobless. Even the high price of gasoline showed up in the figures: Not only did the auto companies shed another 18,000 workers in September – down to 845,000 – but the crash in car sales led auto dealers to cut 10,000 jobs and the $4-a-gallon pump price produced 6,000 fewer service station jobs.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.