by Tula Connell
Employers slashed 83,000 jobs in March, according to this morning’s monthly jobs report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, worsening the nation’s unemployment rate to 5.1 percent, up three-tenths of a percentage point since February. The job loss was far worse than even the most pessimistic of predictions, and was spread across industries, with the biggest losses in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
The unemployment figures follow yesterday’s Labor Department report showing the number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits increased last week to the highest level since just after Hurricane Katrinain September 2005. Initial jobless claims climbed by 38,000 in the week that ended March 29 to 407,000.
The jobs report is the latest in a seemingly endless release of new data confirming what many of us have known for many months: The economy is crumbling. And the Economist-in-Chief doesn’t get it. And neither does the probable Republican nominee for president.
The fundamentals of the economy are strong, say George Bush and John McCain.
Bush and McSame (or is that McBush and McCain?) refuse to face what’s hit the rest of us in the face. Some 81 percent of the American public say the country is on the wrong track, according to a poll released yesterday by The New York Times/CBS. And 78 percent of respondents say the country was worse off than five years ago—only 4 percent say it was better off.
Yet in recent months, McCain has asserted:
And by the way, I don’t believe we’re headed into a recession. I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong, and I believe they will remain strong.
Meanwhile, even Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, long a recession-denier, said the United States could slip into a recession this year, according to The Wall Street Journal,
using a word that other government officials, including President Bush, have gone to great lengths to avoid.
McCain ought to take a look at this week’s newspapers, which in the past few days alone show a seriously troubling list of failing economic indicators:
- U.S. new home sales fell to a 13-year low, a seasonally adjusted, annualized pace of 590,000 in February 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
- Consumers fell behind on car, credit card and home-equity loans at the highest level in 15 years, according to the American Bankers Association’s quarterly survey. Payments at least 30 days past due increased across all eight categories of loans tracked during the fourth quarter.
- The number of Americans on food stamps is at a stunning high: The Congressional Budget Office this month projected a continued increase in the monthly number of recipients in the next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1—to 28 million, up from 27.8 million in 2008, and 26.5 million in 2007. Already, 10 percent of residents in some states, like New York and Ohio, are on food stamps, and from December 2006 to December 2007, more than 40 states saw recipient numbers rise, and in several—Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Dakota and Rhode Island—the one-year growth was 10 percent or more.
- Consumer confidence plummeted to a five-year low in March. The Conference Board, a New York-based industry group, said its consumer confidence index dived to 64.5 in March, down dramatically from February’s 76.4.
And let’s not forget about the ongoing shame of poverty in this country, as too many policymakers have. One in eight Americans—approximately 37 million people—now live below the federal poverty line of $19,971 for a family of four. That’s 4.9 million more people than in 2000 and the poverty rate for children is the highest of all age groups. (As The Nation writes: The current poverty measure is “a woefully inadequate measure that is 42 years old and fails to account for basic necessities.”) Nearly 60 million people live just above the poverty line.
For nearly eight years, Bush administration policies have decayed the core of our economy. Bush is so out of touch with what’s going on around us, even President Reagan’s former chief of staff is stunned. From The New York Times:
For a man who came into office as the nation’s first MBA president, Mr. Bush has sometimes seemed invisible during the housing and credit crunch. As the economy eclipses Iraq as the top issue on voters’ minds, even some Republican allies of the president say Mr. Bush is being eclipsed and is in danger of looking out of touch.
“He’s over there arguing about who should get into NATO, and the American people are focused on what’s in their pocketbooks,” said Kenneth M. Duberstein, who was chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan in his second term. “He has talked about the economy, but it is not viewed as being a satisfactory response. Unfortunately, the lasting image is of not knowing of $4-a-gallon gas.”
Frighteningly, the Republicans likely will nominate a candidate who will continue the failed policies that led us to this quagmire. McCain’s policies look a lot like four more years.