The unemployed

[Omaha Steve]

http://mobile.latimes.com/wap/news/text.jsp?sid=294&nid=20930362&cid=16704&scid=-1&ith=0&title=Opinion

Story posted 2010.09.06 at 12:00 AM PDT

Prodded by union leaders, state governments started designating a Labor Day holiday on the first Monday in September more than 120 years ago. The day has always been tinged with melancholy — it marks the unofficial end of summer. This year, however, the holiday is particularly bittersweet.

The Labor Department reported Friday that private employment increased by only 67,000 jobs in August, or 40,000 fewer than in July. That leaves 14.9 million people unemployed, in addition to the 8.9 million who are employed part time because they can't find full-time jobs. It was the eighth consecutive month of increased private hiring but the second with no improvement in the unemployment rate, which inched up to 9.6%.

Granted, the situation was worse in the last three months of 2009, when 10% of the country was unemployed. But painfully slow economic growth and even slower hiring has scarcely improved matters since then. And now the country's workforce finds itself in an unusually uncomfortable position: For the first time since the Depression, unemployment is likely to be above 9.5% for two consecutive Labor Days.

The sputtering recovery has sharpened Washington's focus on jobs and unemployment, but Democrats and Republicans remain sharply divided over what to do. Having counted on last year's $787-billion stimulus package to revive the economy, Democrats were slow to respond when joblessness continued to increase through much of 2009. And now their ranks are split between liberals eager for more stimulus and moderates anxious about the deficit. Republicans, meanwhile, blame the economy's problems on the stimulus package, healthcare reform and just about every other Democratic initiative. They argue that the best tonic would be to extend the Bush tax cuts permanently, a proposal that has no chance on Capitol Hill but may play well on the campaign trail.

To craft the right response to the unemployment problem, it helps to understand who the unemployed are and why they don't have jobs. Here are some insights provided by the data that the Bureau of Labor Statistics assembles:

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