Left out in the cold
The bad news never ends for the American worker: The U.S. added a feeble 113,000 jobs in the month of January — pushing hope for real prosperity still further into a dim future. At this painfully slow growth rate, it would take eight more months merely to finish replacing the 8 million jobs lost during the Great Recession that ended four full years ago — let alone to begin supplying more jobs to a growing population.
Unemployment inched downward to 6.6%, but that number masks a darker reality in which millions of Americans have resigned themselves to part-time jobs, while millions more have given up looking for work.
And while the economy flounders, Washington does worse than fiddle. It makes things worse.
An urgently needed extension of long-term unemployment benefits — which would have eased the pain for 1.7 million Americans while putting $6.4 billion into circulation — died in the Senate on Thursday, blocked by Republicans who put anti-spending ideology ahead of the greater good.
That same day, GOP House Speaker John Boehner hit the brakes on a sure-fire economy booster: immigration reform that would open the door to more job-creating talent from overseas.
A week earlier, Boehner had signaled a willingness to compromise on this hot-button issue, saying the system is “broken” and “hurting our econ- omy and jeopardizing our national security.” Then he buckled under heavy flak from his party’s right wing.
President Obama, meanwhile, pays lip service to caring about job creation — but, having squandered political capital on Obamacare, he faces congressional resistance as a spent force. So much for any likelihood of serious investment in infrastructure and long-term research.
The results are grim. A report from the Congressional Budget Office projected that the percentage of Americans participating in the work force — which peaked at 67% at the turn of the century — will plunge below 62% within the next decade, leaving a shrinking pool of labor to pay the nation’s bills.
And it’s not just because baby boomers are retiring. It’s also because the stagnating economy is shutting out more of the young, willing and able.
As Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren pointed out in a speech last week, the unemployment rate misses almost half the picture of misery — leaving out almost 10 million Americans who are stuck in part-time jobs against their will or no longer trying to find work.
“For these Americans, it is all too painfully apparent that labor markets remain far from their state prior to the recession,” Rosengren said.
If only our nation’s leaders would stop their political maneuvering long enough to see that truth — and do something.