Jobs Growth: The Big Picture

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

*****   Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 11:05:18 -0600
From: Institute for Public Accuracy <ipamedia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Jobs Growth: The Big Picture
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Friday, April 2, 2004

Jobs Growth: The Big Picture

JARED BERNSTEIN, [via Karen Conner, kconner@xxxxxxxxxx], http://www.epinet.org
Jared Bernstein is a senior economist with the Economic Policy
Institute and co-author of the report "Missing the moving target:
Meager job growth and the poor track record of the administration's
job forecasts." He said today: "The jobs paradox continues with the
March 2004 jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting
a whopping 308,000 new jobs, at the same time as the unemployment
rose from 5.6 to 5.7 percent.  Today's unemployment numbers show that
for the first time since the 'jobs and growth' tax cut went into
effect in June 2003 the administration met and exceeded its promise
of 306,000 per month. However, the administration has a long way to
go to make up for the 2,065,000 new jobs the administration projected
the economy would generate by February 2004 if the tax cuts passed."
. . .

HEATHER BOUSHEY, hboushey@xxxxxxxx, http://www.cepr.net
Heather Boushey is an economist with the Center for Economic and
Policy Research and co-author of the updated briefing paper released
today titled "For Welfare Reform to Work, Jobs Must Be Available."
The report finds that "during the recession and recovery from 2001 to
the present, job growth has been slow and wage growth has been
negligible in the industries that former welfare recipients
predominantly work in." Boushey said today: "While this is the first
month of this recovery that we've seen significant job gains, the
signs of labor market weakness remain: many are still struggling to
find employment and the share of the unemployed who have been out of
work and searching for a new job for at least six months increased
from 22.9 to 23.9 percent, a level usually only seen in the midst of
recessions. Other signs of continued weakness in the labor market are
a fall in hours by 0.1 hour to an average of 33.7 hours per week and
little wage growth. Over the past four months, the nominal annualized
quarterly growth rate was 2.3 percent -- since this is below the rate
of inflation, workers are seeing real declines in their hourly
earnings. The share of Americans who are 'discouraged workers,' that
is, they would like a job, but gave up looking out of frustration,
increased by 8.4 percent over the past year, up to 514,000
individuals."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167   *****
--
Yoshie

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