A year ago the stimulus bill was passed. Lots of talk today about how it was a complete failure, we’re still losing jobs, etc, etc. I stumbled across this nifty little chart that gives a graphic representation of the job picture over the past couple years. We’re making progress, but yes, there’s still a long way to go.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
I'm the President of The Park People of Milwaukee County, an elected official of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, a union leader, community organizer and transit advocate who is working to make Milwaukee great again. I've been writing this weblog for nearly ten years ... read more...
You may want to break that down by public sector versus private sector jobs.
Just curious, but why does it matter? People working in either sector is good.
If that were true, then the government would just quadruple every one of its departments’ budgets and get 100% employment. You cannot grow the economy by fiat, or else it would have already been done.
Just curious, but why does it matter? People working in either sector is good.
*tears roll down my cheek*
Public sector jobs do not grow the economy.
Sorry Dan, but it does matter. You’re forgetting that it’s the people in one sector (the private) that are paying, with their tax dollars, the people in the other sector (government). As the government sector keeps growing, it’s going to take either (a) more people in the private sector to pay for the growing number of people in the government sector, or (b) a larger contribution (taxes) from the same number of people in the private sector.
Since we don’t have any sustaining, wealth-producing job growth in this country that adds to the number of people to pay for the growing govenment sector(see a above), the government can only take a bigger bite from each of us in the private sector (see b above).
Higher taxes of course shrinks the private sector even more, which requires higher taxes, which shrinks the private sector even more, etc. etc. etc.
Dan, Ill forward your graph to my out of work neighbors and friends and see if that comforts them. 6 percent of Americans, according to a NYT poll, believe that the stimulus has worked in creating jobs. 25 years after Elvis’s death a CBS news poll showed 7 percent of Americans believed he was still alive.
“there’s still a long way to go.”
Disclaimer: I am trying to have a real, honest conversation about this.
This chart tells us only that people have stopped issuing jobless claims.
Unemployment is still over 10% and growing – yet this chart paints a rosy picture. The problem is, no new, economy growing jobs are being created. Just because there are fewer job losses does not mean progress is being made.
I am trying to make an analogy here so bear with me … for this example a job is a hair on my head. I lost 1000 hairs each month from last Jan until this February. Today I finally stopped losing hair. Why? Because I’m friggin’ bald. I don’t have any more hair to lose. Does that mean my hairdo is “making progress”? No. We would need to compare that “number of hairs lost per month” chart to “total hair lost”, “new hairs grown” and “percentage of hair on my head”, etc. Right?
(man oh man … I apologize for that analogy, but I think you get my point).