Repairing The Job Machine-More jobs might be created this year than during Bush's presidency.

[kpete]

Repairing The Job Machine
More jobs might be created this year than during George W. Bush's presidency.

by Ronald Brownstein

Saturday, May 15, 2010

If the economy produces jobs over the next eight months at the same pace as it did over the past four months, the nation will have created more jobs in 2010 alone than it did over the entire eight years of George W. Bush's presidency.

That comparison comes with many footnotes and asterisks. But it shows how the economic debate between the parties could look very different over time -- perhaps by November, more likely by 2012. More important, the comparison underscores the urgency of repairing an American job-creation machine that was sputtering long before the 2008 financial meltdown.

First, the numbers: From February 2001, Bush's first full month in office, through January 2009, his last, total U.S. nonfarm employment grew from 132.5 million to 133.5 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's an increase, obviously, of just 1 million. From January through April of this year, the economy created 573,000 jobs. Over a full year, that projects to 1.72 million jobs. Job-creation numbers are notoriously volatile, so the actual result could run above or below that estimate. But Obama administration economists are increasingly optimistic that job growth this year will exceed expectations. Few of them will be surprised if more jobs are created in 2010 than over Bush's two terms.

Now the principal footnote: To compare job growth in 2010 with Bush's record ignores the nearly 4 million jobs lost in Obama's first year, during the freefall that began in Bush's final months. That's like ignoring a meteor strike. Over time, voters are likely to judge Obama by his degree of success in eliminating that deficit and reducing unemployment. Still, if the economy this year produces more than 1 million jobs -- or, conceivably, more than 2 million -- that will give Democrats more ammunition to argue that their agenda has started to turn the tide.

more:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20100515_5237.php

[tonysam]

1. The year is already half shot

Brownstein should take his fantasy and shove it.

[Mari333]

2. how many jobs where you earn a livable wage?

for some people, unemployment benefits pay more now then any job out there.

[midnight]

3. Jobs are so important, that I can't understand why so much time was spent

playing chess with the health care lobbyists or the wall street banksters? I do think Paul Loeb has a wonderful thought on this subject:

The Democrats need to tackle youth joblessness. They've passed important changes in student financial aid, like income-contingent loan repayment. Most students and recent students don't know about them, and they need to. But with youth unemployment at near-record levels, it's understandable that young men and women would feel angry and frustrated. If the Democrats want to keep this generation, they need to pass major jobs bills, probably through reconciliation, since the Republicans seem to be only too eager to leave young voters demoralized and unemployed. It would be nice if the Obama administration were leading on this more strongly, but since aren't leading strongly enough, the push to make jobs the top priority has to come from the grassroots. This happened in the 1930s under Roosevelt. Seventy-five years later, I can visit a Works Progress Administration-created library or go for a run on a Works Progress Administration-created boardwalk, and reap the benefits of programs that also gave millions of people desperately needed jobs. We need to make equivalent investments now, targeted at those who need jobs the most.
Dashed hopes also matter. Politics may be the art of compromise, but from health care to Guantanamo to Afghanistan and the bank bailouts, the compromises of the Obama administration have added up to belie the image of a candidacy of change. To reverse this trend, the administration needs to stand up more strongly, and with less apology and with less apology and deference toward those who have no interest in solutions, on all the other issues that matter.http://www.paulloeb.org/articles/ReclaimingYouthVote.html

[Biker13]

4. K&R...

[earth mom]

5. Betcha most of those jobs pay jack shit and aren't enough to live on. nt

[Crabby Appleton]

6. ignoring the 4 million jobs lost in '09