Nothing to ‘chuckle’ about: Despite what Obama says, Keystone jobs no laughing matter

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In an interview with the New York Times on Saturday, US President Barack Obama "chuckled" - that's what the Times called his reaction - when he was asked about the number of jobs that would be created by the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. "Republicans have said that this would be a big jobs generator. There is no evidence that that's true," said Obama. "The most realistic estimates are this might create maybe 2,000 jobs during the construction of the pipeline - which might take a year or two - and then after that we're talking about somewhere between 50 and 100 (chuckles) jobs in a economy of 150 million working people." The Times actually added the word "chuckles" to their report. But it's hard to find the humour. Five years after the Great Recession began, the U.S. unemployment rate has not returned to pre-recession levels. Worse, millions of Americans have dropped out of the workforce, giving up looking for jobs at all. The real youth unemployment rate - including those who have stopped looking for a job - is a staggering 23%. More...