Jobs & Economy (July 2012)

Experts foresee little improvement in lead-up to presidential Election Day.

As I travel across Pennsylvania talking to constituents, people continue to focus on one thing — jobs. 

Our nation is the mightiest economy on the planet, with great potential for growth. 

This December will mark the fifth anniversary of the official beginning of the recession, and the U.S. economy is exhibiting no positive momentum. 

The preeminent economic challenge of our time is to generate robust job growth and make sure unemployment drops steadily and rapidly. Our failure to adequately address the persistent high unemployment rate means we can expect depressed wages; eroded benefits; wrecked career trajectories, especially for the young; and years before family incomes return to their pre-recession levels. This is especially disappointing given that there were no improvements in workers’ inflation-adjusted wages and benefits, among either high school or college graduates, in the prior recovery from 2002 to 2007, and working-class family incomes were lower in 2007 than at the start of the prior business cycle in 2000. What is at stake is whether we will have a lost decade ahead of us coming on top of the one we have just been through. The meager job growth in June and the last few months reported in the last ‘jobs report’ accentuates the need to take decisive action.

One of the biggest jobs bills to clear the Senate this session passed with strong bipartisan support more than 200 days ago.

What did last Friday’s jobs numbers mean? The same thing they meant last month, and in the months and months before that: President Obama’s economic policies are too big to succeed.