Today’s Unemployment Numbers And the Loss of 2.6 Million Jobs Over Last Two Years
Published on April 4, 2003 by AFL-CIO
"Today’s Unemployment Numbers And the Loss of 2.6 Million Jobs
Over Last Two Years"
by AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney
WASHINGTON - April 4 - Today’s report that the economy lost another 108,000
jobs in March is more dismal evidence that current economic policies are failing
to create good jobs that pay well and support families. On average, America
has lost a stunning 105,000 private sector jobs every month since the President
George W. Bush’s inauguration. Neither the war in Iraq nor the 9/11 attacks
explain this disastrous record: the loss of 2.6 million private sector jobs
began before these events and has been steady ever since. Meanwhile, even as
workers struggle to keep the jobs they have, the administration and Congress
have started to give employers more ways to load up workers with unpaid hours
by taking apart the laws that guarantee overtime pay, thus drying up even more
job opportunities.
The fact that the unemployment rate stayed at 5.8 percent in March does not balance out discouraging truths about looking for work in America. More than 1 million people simply gave up looking for work last month, a jump of 200,000 over this time last year. The number of workers unemployed for six months or longer, 1.7 million, is up nearly half a million more than a year ago. And the manufacturing sector, one of the hardest hit industries since President Bush took office, lost another 36,000 jobs.
The growing crisis for workers in the airline industry, which has lost more than 150,000 jobs since January 2001, offers a sad example of how the government has neglected working families. Congress and President Bush deliberately refused to include assistance to laid-off airline workers when it passed a corporate bailout bill at the end of 2001 and the president continues to talk down how much assistance the government will give, despite massive layoffs.
The unemployed in all industries are paying for the recession with their jobs, health care and retirement savings. They need emergency jobless benefits extended until jobs are available again and this time Congress and President Bush cannot leave out the one million laid-off workers who exhausted their benefits and still can’t find work.
Two years ago, Congress passed a massive tax cut that President Bush claimed would create jobs and turn around the economy. Since then, we have lost jobs and the economic situation has deteriorated. Yet the president argues we need more of the same medicine – more unbalanced and unfair tax cuts for the very rich – to create good American jobs. President Bush is wrong. Congress can build a stronger, more secure future for all Americans and for our children by building schools and roads, investing in hospitals and job training. Unbalanced tax breaks are destroying opportunities for the future and will only further wreck families’ economic security.
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