As we head into the next year and the 112th Congress, understanding the data behind our economic recovery will be crucial if the economy is to grow and strengthen. A closer look at how states fared in 2010 as well as how they fared during the last four recessions can be a useful guide to both Republicans and Democrats who are serious about shaping strong, smart, and strategic job-creation policies in 2011.
Simply put, the Great Recession of 2007-09 was the worst post-World War II recession, and this fact is substantiated in a recent report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee.
Prior to the Great Recession, the 1981-82 recession was the deepest post-World War II recession. During that recession, job losses averaged 3.1% on a national basis. States like Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, and West Virginia experienced job losses that were twice the national average, with each seeing a decrease in payroll employment of at least 6.9%.
While severe, the 1981-82 recession doesn't really compare to the depth of the recent Great Recession. The national job loss average during the 2007-09 recession was 5.3%. 21 states experienced job losses above 5%, with Nevada experiencing an 11.6% decrease in payroll employment, Michigan and Arizona experiencing 9.8% decreases, and Florida experiencing an 8.9% decrease.
These job losses have devastated family savings accounts, put companies out of business, and forced states to slash public services.
The Great Recession ended in June 2009 and the high tide that brought soaring job losses began to change in 2010. Now, as the year comes to a close, we know that 46 states and the District of Columbia experienced net job gains in private-sector employment from January to November 2010.
We are moving in the right direction, but clearly not fast enough, as 15 million people are still out of work in our country, and millions of families continue to struggle to just get by -- to put food on the table, pay bills, and think of the better days to come.
The American people are frustrated that the federal government's actions have not completely turned our economy around, and that is understandable. Creating jobs, retraining workers, and rebuilding our economy is going to take time.
As I've chaired the Joint Economic Committee over the last two years, experts ranging from the Federal Reserve Chairman to renowned economists have testified that this recession was different and there is no silver bullet that will return our economy to prosperity overnight and create the millions of new jobs needed.
As Republicans assume control of the House on January 5th, I hope they will quickly recognize that it's time to move beyond campaign rhetoric on cuts in spending, taxes, and federal programs so that we can effectively work together to spur job creation and further economic growth.
We are currently trending in the right direction. Let's make a New Year's resolution to work together so that we can continue to encourage innovations, support entrepreneurs and small businesses, and ensure that unemployed Americans are afforded the benefits they deserve and provided with effective job retraining opportunities.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney represents parts of Queens and Manhattan in the House of Representatives, where she is Chair of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee in the 111th Congress.
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Women are now 50% of the work force, compared to 40% in 1978, 31% in 1953.
We in US work 20% more hours per-capita than Europe, have lower standard of living.
If the same percent of women worked now as in 1978, there would be NO unemployment. I believe women should of course have careers if they want to. But most mothers (including mine) work because they have to, in my case so we could own a home.
So median wages declined, mothers went to work to make ends meet, the extra supply of labor drove wages down further. The rich profited from more and cheaper workers, consuming more corporate products.
We DON'T need more jobs, we need higher wages so more mothers or fathers can afford to be parents. And/or lower expenses, like national health care. A less regressive system.
http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/herman/reports/futurework/report/chapter3/chart3-1_text.htm
That pretty much sum up your thinking when you decided to have one of your staff write this?
If past is indicative of the future, I will not be holding my breath for any break-through from rule makers to benefit the employees that would take money from the "starving" corporate board members and officers or reduce the campaign contribution of the politicos.... When hogs rule, the world becomes littered with manure....
Typical liberal 'compromise' mentality: forget your own beliefs and embrace ours of higher spending, higher taxes, and bigger government.
Rep. Maloney and all of Congress, as well as the WH, knows what needs to be done, but to do so would dry up all those lucrative "donations" that ensure these politicians continue to get reelected. So regardless that democrats are more on the side of the people than the republicans, all of them are complicit in legislating employment opportunities to other countries.
The American people need to convey to the WH and Congress that we grow tired of these conditions and the little to no effort to correct bad legislation. The fact is, WE have become complicit in sitting back and just hoping that our government will turn things around......it's not going to happen, unless the people demand it happen and then back that up with actions.
"...just one-quarter of the workers [surveyed] have found full-time jobs, nearly all of them for less pay and with fewer or no benefits. “For those who remain unemployed,” the report says, “the cupboard has long been bare.”
Nearly two-thirds of the unemployed workers who were surveyed have been out of work for a year or more. More than a third have been jobless for two years.
Older workers who are jobless are caught in a particularly precarious state of affairs."
"The fact that so many Americans are out of work, or working at jobs that don’t pay well, undermines the prospects for a robust recovery. Jobless people don’t buy a lot of flat-screen TVs. What we’re really seeing is an erosion of standards of living for an enormous portion of the population, including a substantial segment of the once solid middle class.
Not only is this not being addressed, but the self-serving, rightward lurch in Washington is all but guaranteed to make matters worse for working people. The zealots reading the economic tea leaves see brighter days ahead. They can afford to be sanguine. They’re working."
Denver Unemployment Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/unemployment-in-denver/despite-rose-colored-reports-unemployment-picture-continues-to-deteriorate