Good news this morning about jobs. There are more of them in the U.S.
We're cross posting from the AFL-CIO blog:
The unemployment rate declined from 8.1% in August to 7.8% in September, with 114,000 jobs added last month, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). There has been positive private-sector job growth for more than two and a half years.
The biggest numbers of the 114,000 jobs were in health care, transportation and warehousing. The number of unemployed persons, at 12.1 million, decreased by 456,000 in September.
Jobless rates for adult men stood at 7.3%; adult women, 7.0%; and white workers also at 7.0%, a decline for all three groups since August. Meanwhile, the unemployment rates for teenagers, 23.7%; African American workers, 13.4%; and Hispanics, 9.9%, showed little change from the previous month.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) dropped from 5 million to 4.8 million.
While unemployment has dropped steadily this year, economists say the pace would be quicker if not for the long track record of the Republicans in Congress blocking legislation aimed to grow the economy, like President Obama's American Jobs Act, which would have created some 1.9 million jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute's (EPI's) Rebecca Thiess. Republicans have continued to obstruct policies that would create jobs and restore growth, while holding the middle class hostage to demands for more tax cuts to benefit the richest 2% of Americans.
Thiess points out President Obama’s job-creation policies—such as the Economic Recovery Act and the rescue of the auto industry—were enacted before Republicans seized control of the House. These policies “are responsible for the creation of millions of jobs in the aftermath of the Great Recession.”
She also notes that the American Jobs Act that Republicans blocked, would have dropped the jobless rate by a full percentage point.
We're cross posting from the AFL-CIO blog:
The unemployment rate declined from 8.1% in August to 7.8% in September, with 114,000 jobs added last month, according to figures released this morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). There has been positive private-sector job growth for more than two and a half years.
The biggest numbers of the 114,000 jobs were in health care, transportation and warehousing. The number of unemployed persons, at 12.1 million, decreased by 456,000 in September.
Jobless rates for adult men stood at 7.3%; adult women, 7.0%; and white workers also at 7.0%, a decline for all three groups since August. Meanwhile, the unemployment rates for teenagers, 23.7%; African American workers, 13.4%; and Hispanics, 9.9%, showed little change from the previous month.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) dropped from 5 million to 4.8 million.
While unemployment has dropped steadily this year, economists say the pace would be quicker if not for the long track record of the Republicans in Congress blocking legislation aimed to grow the economy, like President Obama's American Jobs Act, which would have created some 1.9 million jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute's (EPI's) Rebecca Thiess. Republicans have continued to obstruct policies that would create jobs and restore growth, while holding the middle class hostage to demands for more tax cuts to benefit the richest 2% of Americans.
Thiess points out President Obama’s job-creation policies—such as the Economic Recovery Act and the rescue of the auto industry—were enacted before Republicans seized control of the House. These policies “are responsible for the creation of millions of jobs in the aftermath of the Great Recession.”
She also notes that the American Jobs Act that Republicans blocked, would have dropped the jobless rate by a full percentage point.
