Jobs Numbers Show: Action on Jobs is Still Needed

Washington, DC – In response to the disappointing unemployment numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning: only 115,000 new jobs were created in April for a jobless rate of 8.1 percent, Robert L. Borosage co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future issued the following statement:

“No one should whitewash this month’s jobs numbers. The economy continues to grow, but this `recovery’ is not working for working people. Over 22 million people are in need of full time work, and job growth is barely sufficient to keep up with new entrants to the workforce. The new jobs being created are disproportionately part-time and temporary work, with lower pay than the jobs that have been lost. Young people are entering a brutal jobs market. As the Associated Press reported this week, one of two college graduates under 25 is either jobless or underemployed.

“Slow growth and mass unemployment translates into falling wages and rising insecurity. Median wages have continued to fall since the official start of the “recovery.” America’s middle class is still losing ground.

“We need action on jobs. Yet the Republican majority in the House has blocked the President’s jobs bill, and failed even to pass the transportation bill that would help put idled construction workers back to work. Instead they continue to push for greater austerity, more cuts in everything from food stamps to food inspectors that will simply add to the economy’s woes. They are either fools who do not understand the misery they are inflicting, or knaves hoping that a sputtering economy will help defeat the president in the fall.

“We know what to do. With interest rates near zero, and the construction industry idle, there is no better time to invest in rebuilding America, modernizing our roads, rail, water systems, and more. Young people shouldn’t pay the price for Wall Street’s excesses, so we should provide states and localities with the funds to sustain schools, rehire teachers, and provide students with the education they need.
Veterans and young people should not face extended unemployment, and the afflictions of depression, drugs, and crime that follow. We should be creating a jobs corps, an urban corps, and a green corps to provide them with work.

“Washington is too divided to act on its own. We will not get out of this mess until Americans rise up and demand action. We know what to do.”

At the Take Back the American Dream conference in June 18 to 20, thousands of progressives from across the country will meet in Washington, DC to organize.