The economic recovery has begun. Or so we're told. The Dow has risen well past 10,000 again and the big banks have started paying back those government loans. Why then are so many people still suffering? The simple answer is jobs - or the lack of them.
More than one in six workers currently can't find a job or is forced to work fewer hours than they want. Nearly six million people have been out of work for at least half a year. While the recession may officially be over, by any meaningful measure our economy is still in distress.
To prevent lasting harm both to families and the economy, more federal action is needed to get people back to work. The House of Representatives took an important step by passing a jobs bill on December 16. The Senate needs to follow suit, so a final, even stronger, bill can reach the President's desk in January and help the most workers.
The immediate consequences of recessions--financial struggle and family stress--are commonly recognized. More parents out of work leads to more child poverty. Economists estimate that one in four children in America today is poor. Most of the unemployed are struggling to put food on the table and keep roofs over their heads. Foreclosure rates, food stamp enrollment, and the number of families that can't consistently afford enough nutritious food have all skyrocketed to record levels.
What is less well known is that the consequences of a recession linger for years, even lifetimes. Health researchers tell us that children in families struggling against hunger (PDF) are more likely to suffer health problems and developmental delays that will cause permanent reductions in potential for some.
Research following children into adulthood shows that children who enter poverty during a recession earn less, achieve lower levels of education, and are less likely to be gainfully employed over their lifetimes than those children who start out in similar circumstances but who never experience poverty. They also have a greater likelihood of suffering from poor health as adults.
Young adults who graduate from college during recessions will have significantly lower earnings even 15 years later. Non-college graduates will almost certainly fare even worse.
If past history is any guide, unemployment will continue to rise for at least another year if nothing is done, and it could take years beyond that to get back to pre-recession employment levels. (It is possible November's slight dip in the unemployment rate is a correction after October's big jump, not the beginning of a trend.)
Some groups are enduring unemployment rates even worse than the national average. Men, badly affected by the slump in construction and manufacturing, continue to have above-average unemployment. More than one-quarter of 16-24 year olds - who should be laying the groundwork for productive careers - are out of work. One in six African American men and nearly half of all African American teenagers are unemployed, as are about one in eight Hispanics and women who head households.
In order to reduce joblessness now, and ensure that everyone is included in the recovery, they must take care to invest in the most effective approaches. That means targeting communities with the highest unemployment levels and the greatest likelihood of building demand for permanent jobs.
An effective job creations program must do three things:
- Offer a balanced menu of direct job creation options that target vulnerable communities and individuals. We need programs that will put people to work right now, like summer jobs for youth and short-term school repair projects. For a sustained recovery we also need to combine work and learning, so people can earn while on a pathway to long-term employment in jobs with career potential.
As a nation, we cannot afford to consign millions to chronic joblessness or underemployment. We need to be preparing our workers for productive jobs, in growing fields like health care or renewable energy. We need to protect and increase jobs available in the public and non-profit sectors to spur the conditions that will lead to economic growth in the private sector as well. Our country has the tools to make a genuine job-creating recovery a reality. What we need now is the will to make it happen.