The latest unemployment data shows that the unemployment rate was unchanged from September to October. The unemployment rate remains at 9.6%–the longest sustained unemployment above 9.4% since the Great Depression.
As ALG President Bill Wilson put it:
“October marks the 18th straight month that unemployment has been at or above 9.4 percent—the longest period of time of sustained high unemployment since the Great Depression. That is as remarkable as it is sad for millions of American families who increasingly cannot make their mortgage payments. Foreclosures are still at all time highs, even as Barack Obama claimed that the worst of the crisis was behind us. Obama’s policies have failed to put America back to work.
“It is time for the Obama Administration to change course, and for the newly elected Congress to plot a new direction. ObamaCare and its many mandates are getting in the way of hiring decisions by employers. The automatic tax increases at the end of year are aimed directly at small business owners and other job creators. The foreign income tax credit that Congress all but eliminated in August is preventing a trillion dollars of capital from being repatriated into the domestic economy.
“Moreover, the endless government spending binge is misallocating resources away from the private sector and giving the federal government an increasing share of the Gross Domestic Product. To get back the millions of jobs lost in this recession, the private sector needs to be growing faster than government. Unfortunately, government right now is growing twice as fast as the private economy, which cannot even keep up with new entrants into the workforce. In the next three years alone, government will have to borrow $8.8 trillion just to keep up with its obligations.
“The Obama ‘stimulus’ program has failed, and has only contributed to an unsustainable $13.6 trillion national debt. With the economy only growing at an anemic 2 percent rate, and inflation taking root in commodities, the pressure on American families to keep up with their monthly payments will be growing. We need jobs, and we need them now. Government needs to get out of the way and let the private economy get to work.”
