Labor & Employment Law

U.S. Jobs Rise by 192,000 in February, 13.7 Million Still Unemployed

By Tula Connell

The number of U.S. jobs increased by 192, 000 in February, with the unemployment rate declining to 8.9 percent from 9 percent in February, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics data out this morning.

Job gains occurred in manufacturing (33,000), construction (33,000), and several service-providing industries. Health care employment continues to increase, rising by 34,000 last month.  Since a recent low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.3 million, or an average of 106,000 per month.

The economy needs to add about 150,000 new jobs each month to keep up with the growth in the labor force. But to lower the nation?s unemployment rate to 6 percent by 2013 and make up for the more than 7 million jobs lost due to the recession, the economy needs to add 350,000 jobs a month.

While the jobs picture is marginally improving, there are still 13.7 million U.S. workers who can’t find jobs and the underemployment rate, which includes unemployed workers, part-time workers who want full-time jobs and workers who have given up looking for work, is 15.9 percent.

At this rate, the private sector is not hiring enough to do more than make small improvements in what still remains a dire jobs crisis in this nation.  So what’s the solution House Republicans are offering? Destroy hundreds of thousands of jobs. Moody?s economist Mark Zandi said the Republican 2011 spending bill would slash 700,000 jobs, while Goldman Sachs estimated it would cut GDP by 2 percent. Even cautious Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the bill would kill 200,000, saying that’s “not trivial.”

You better believe it isn’t. Voters went to the polls last fall with job creation at the top of their agenda. Instead, Republicans in the House and in governors’ offices and state legislatures across the nation are slashing middle-class jobs and decimating the core of this country.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 04, 2011 (boomark / email).