Still Jobless After All These Years

Yesterday at the White House, President Barack Obama faced the media to once again plug the American Jobs Act–his plan for more stimulus spending, paid for with even more taxes on America’s job creators. And this morning, not a day later, America received a reminder of why a continuation of the President’s tried-and-failed policies is not a prescription for success: In September, the U.S. unemployment rate held steady at a dismal 9.1 percent with 14 million Americans still out of work. About 103,000 jobs were added, but 45,000 of those were simply Verizon strikers returning to work, and the number of long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more) increased by 208,000.

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For those keeping score, the unemployment rate has hovered around 9 percent for all of 2011, was over 9 percent for all of 2010 and most of 2009, and will remain above 8 percent until 2014 according to the Congressional Budget Office (and that’s a generous estimate that didn’t account for the most recent economic slowdown). If you demand more and want to see full employment in America (about 5 percent unemployment), you’ll have to wait until 2018, and that will happen only if employers regain their confidence and begin hiring at 176,000 jobs per month–much higher than the rate seen in September and, for that matter, all year. The President, though, does not accept any of the blame for America’s continued stagnation or the economy’s unsteady recovery, even though a staggering 55 percent of Americans disapprove of his job performance. In his press conference yesterday, the President was asked to comment on Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke warning to Congress this week that the economic recovery is “close to faltering.” The President’s answer? Laying the blame as far away from his doorstep as possible, pointing the finger at everything from the tsunami in Japan to the GOP in Congress: More...

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