US jobs crisis worsens

WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s no relief from the jobs crisis — for everyday Americans or lawmakers facing the midterm elections.

The most rampant layoffs of teachers and other local government workers in nearly three decades more than offset weak hiring in the private sector in September, resulting in a net loss of 95,000 jobs. Unemployment remained stuck at 9.6 percent.

The jobless rate has been at or above 9.5 percent for a year and two months, the longest stretch since the Great Depression. The “underemployment” rate adds part-time workers who would rather work full time and jobless people who aren’t actively seeking work. It now exceeds 17 percent.

The glum economic picture came Friday in the Labor Department’s last monthly jobs report before the November election. Voter frustration over jobs threatens to cost Democrats control of the House and perhaps the Senate.

“We have to keep doing everything we can to accelerate this recovery,” President Barack Obama said. “The only piece of economic news that folks still looking for work want to hear is, `You’re hired.’ And everything we do is dedicated to make that happen.”

The combination of limp hiring by businesses and more governments layoffs expected means unemployment could rise to 10 percent again this year or next. When Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent.

In an Associated Press-GfK poll taken in September, 92 percent of Americans said the economy was an extremely or very important issue. And 79 percent said the economy was in bad shape, compared with 15 percent who said it was healthy.

September was the fourth straight month in which the economy has lost jobs. Layoffs of government workers, including temporary Census Bureau employees, drove the decline. Most census jobs have already expired, but others have lasted longer.

In all, the economy shed 159,000 jobs in the public sector, including 76,000 at the local level, most of them teachers. It was the largest cut by local governments in 28 years.

One reason the spike is showing up now is that teachers who were notified of their layoffs when school ended in spring fell off the payrolls in September. That’s the case for Georgia middle school teacher Candy Murdock, a mother of 13.

Despite seven years of experience and certifications in Spanish, biology and English for speakers of other languages, Murdock was laid off in the spring.

More layoffs are expected from state and local governments despite a $26 billion aid package that Obama signed into law in August. The recession devastated state and local budgets.

Without any big rise in sales, companies are not adding jobs fast enough to make up for the losses. Private businesses added only 64,000 positions last month, only about half what it takes to keep up with the growing work force.

There are now 14.8 million people officially unemployed in the United States, and even that figure doesn’t capture the suffering. People out of work who have stopped looking for jobs are not counted as unemployed. –AP (The Philippine Star)