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Mr. President:
Way too many workers and far too few jobs--that is the problem with
our economy; and redistribution of income is the solution. Please restore
the Roosevelt/Truman/Eisenhower/Kennedy tax system and CREATE MORE JOBS!!!!
[by reimplementing the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and expanding Americorps (the CCC equivalent).]
--
According to CNN (8/23/09) 650,000 unemployed workers will lose their unemployment
compensation next month. This is developing into a TERRIBLE ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE
for our working people.
--> PLEASE RE-EMPLEMENT THE TAX CODE AS IT WAS IN 1963.
--> INCREASE AMERICORP TO 500,000 OPENINGS
--> INITIATE A WPA PROGRAM TO BUILD RENEWABLE ENERGY
PARKS SIMILAR TO WHAT THE CHINESE ARE DOING AT ORDOS.
- US population: 305,900,000 (as of March 1, 2009), increasing at the rate of 2.8 million per year
- Number of American adults: about 230 million.
- Record Births in US: 4,317,000 in 2007. (NYT, 3/19/09, A13)
- Current job situation since the start of the "Great" Recession 20 months ago:
- Total jobs lost ("axed"): 6.7 million jobs (NYT, 8/08/09, A16)
- New jobs which were needed to absorb new workers (college/HS graduates, immigrants): 2.4 million
- Total shortfall: 9.1 million
- Current US Employed working part time because unable to find full time work: 4.4 million
- Total number of US workers unable to find either PT or FT work: 10.3 million (NYT 12/7/08)
- US manufacturing jobs lost 2001-2005: approximately 2.3 million
- Due to NAFTA, CAFTA, outsourcing to China, and the current recession.
- Total Information Technology jobs lost up to 2005: one million
- Net number nonfarm W2 payroll jobs created or lost (per month from www.bls.gov):
- 75,000 new jobs created in May 06
- 124,000 new jobs created in June 06.
- 121,000 new jobs created in July 06.
- ... two plus years later ...
- 159,000 jobs lost in September 08 -- In RED we show the number of net jobs lost per month.
- 240,000 jobs lost in October 08
- 533,000 jobs lost in November (1.91 million total lost this year.)
- 524,000 jobs lost in December; 7.2% unemployment rate
- 598,000 jobs lost in January; 7.6% unemployed per telephone survey Worst since 1974.
- 651,000 jobs lost in February; 8.1% unemployment.
- 652,000rev jobs lost in March
- 504,000rev jobs lost in April; a welcome contraction.
- 303,000rev jobs lost in May (quite a shrinkage; definitely a good trend).
- 463,000rev jobs lost in June (an increasingly bad number drives the market down on)
- 304,000rev jobs lost in July Wow what a drop! Great!!
- 154,000rev2 jobs lost in August -- Good, on the second revision (11/6/09) a definite improvement!
- 219,000 jobs lost in September.
-
Unemployment rate (from telephone poll, bls.gov): up from 9.8% in Sep: now 10.2% (11/6/09)
-
Average Hours worked per Week (non-farm): 33.0 (10/2/09) A decrease from August's number of 33.1
- Net new monthly job growth required so that there will be sufficient jobs for arriving immigrants/graduates: 150,000
(In other words we need to be creating about 2 million new jobs per year just to stay even with population growth.)
- Weekly new applications for unemployment insurance (UEC, from www.dol.gov):
- 312,000 (week ending 8/3/06)
- 322,000 (week ending 8/10/06)
- 312,000 (week ending 8/17/06)
- ...
- 435,000 (week ending 8/15/08) Compare to two years ago, directly above!!
- 425,000 (week ending 8/22/08)
- 445,000 (week ending 8/30/08)
- 451,000 (week ending 9/06/08)
- 498,000 (week ending 9/27/08)
- 478,000 (week ending 10/04/08)
- 529,000 (week ending 11/22/08)
- 509,000 (week ending 11/29/08)
- 575,000 (week ending 12/6/08) -- Largest number in 26 years!!!
- 554,000 (week ending 12/13/08)
- 586,000 (week ending 12/20/08) -- Largest number since Nov. 1982!!
- 492,000 (week ending 12/27/08) -- Good, a shrinking trend; let's hope it keeps shrinking.
- 470,000 (week ending 1/3/09rev) -- Continuing to shrink
- 527,000 (week ending 1/10/09rev) -- Whoops; starting to increase again.
- 585,000 (week ending 1/17/09rev) -- A new high, but this is the season for layoffs.
- 591,000rev (week ending 1/24/09) -- This is still the layoff season, unfortunately.
- 631,000rev (week ending 1/31/09) -- a record number going back to the 1982 recession
- 627,000rev (week ending 2/7/09) -- a slight contraction; note that retail sales are up 1%, best bounce in 6 months.
- 631,000rev (week ending 2/14/09)
- 670,000rev (week ending 2/21/09) A big jump. Unexpected.
- 645,000 (week ending 2/28/09rev)
- 658,000 (week ending 3/7/09rev)
- 644,000 (week ending 3/14/09rev)
- 657,000 (week ending 3/21/09rev)
- 674,000 (week ending 3/28/09rev)
- 654,000 (week ending 4/4/09)
- 613,000? (week ending 4/11/09rev) {a year ago it was 369,000)
- 645,000 (week ending 4/18/09rev)
- 635,000 (week ending 4/25/09rev)
- 605,000 (week ending 5/2/09rev)
- 643,000 (week ending 5/9/09rev) increasing due to auto plant shutdowns in midwest.
- 636,000 (week ending 5/16/09rev)
- 625,000 (week ending 5/23/09rev)
- 625,000 (week ending 5/30/09rev) Continuing to decrease for the third week; good.
- 605,000 (week ending 6/6/09rev) Continuing to decrease. Consistent with the monthly data above.
- 612,000 (week ending 6/13/09rev)
- 630,000 (week ending 6/20/09rev)
- 617,000 (week ending 6/27/09rev)
- 569,000 (week ending 7/4/09rev) lowest level since Jan. 24.
- 524,000 (week ending 7/11/09rev) continuing to fall, fortunately.
- 559,000 (week ending 7/18/09rev) By now it is clear that the Obama administration does not know how
to create or save jobs! (Ans. Re-establish the Works Progress Administration and the CCC!)
-
588,000 (week ending 7/25/09rev)
-
554,000 (week ending 8/1/09rev)
-
561,000 (week ending 8/8/09rev)
-
580,000 (week ending 8/15/09rev)
-
574,000 (week ending 8/22/09rev)
-
576,000 (week ending 8/29/09rev)
-
557,000 (week ending 9/5/09rev) Coming down but still an awfully big number!
-
545,000 (week ending 9/12/09)
-
534,000 (week ending 9/19/09rev)
-
554,000 (week ending 9/26/09rev)
-
524,000 (week ending 10/3/09) The lowest since January, by a hair.
-
520,000 (week ending 10/10/09rev) Hopefully this number will continue shrinking.
-
531,000 (week ending 10/17/09)
-
532,000 (week ending 10/24/09)
-
512,000 (week ending 10/31/09) We seem to be making some headway in quenching these massive layoffs.
- Total number of persons continuing to draw UnEmployment Compensation: 15.7 million (11/06/09))
- The Senate has just extended UEC Benefits to 99 weeks for some states. (NYT, 11/5/09, A19)
- Last month (October) some 600,000 unemployed had run out of their UEC benefets (per NELP).
- The "Growing Army of the Unemployed": 11.1 million. (NYT, 1/10/09, Louis Uchitelle, frontpage)
- The growing number of Underemployed plus Unemployed is 26 million (cnbc, 9/4/09, Steve Leeseman)
- Young people (18 - 24 unmarried) are increasingly turning to Ameircorps or NCCC.
- Americorps/NCCC stipend is $80/week plus $4.50 daily food allowance plus a $4,725 educational award
- See NYT article by Dan Barry (9/7/09,A7) for further information about the current Americorps program.
- Current Worker Productivity: +8.1% (The higher this number the fewer workers are needed.)
- Average hourly pay: $18.47; average work week: 33.3 hours (2/6/09)
- Personal bankruptcies for the 12 months ending September, 2008:
- One million (NYT, 1/24/09); CORRECTION they are now projecting 1.6 million for this year!!!
- States reporting the highest rates of bankruptcy filings as reported in NYT (4/4/09/B1) :
- Nevada, Tennesee, Georgia, Alabama, Michigan
- The worst states for finding work, having the highest rates of unemployment:
- Michigan, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, California, Nevada, Florida, North Carolina,
Georgia (6/20/09).
- The best states for jobs:
- Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Iowa, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, West Virgina.
- ****Also, the Federal Government is hiring census takers for the 2010 Census!!! *********
- Average Annual Legal Immigration: 1 million (most need jobs when they arrive)
- Average Annual Net Illegal Immigration: 500,000 (estimate)
- "An estimated 7.7 million US jobs are held by illegal aliens." (accordiog to fair.com, April 2009)
- H-1B Visa holders resident in the US displacing high tech US workers: 900,000
- US Citizens entering job market each year (graduation from H.S./college etc.) : approx. 1.4 million
- US workers leaving the job pool each year (due to retirement, death, emigration, etc.): ?
- Disabled US workers and family members drawing disability (SSDI): 8 million.
- Americans living in poverty: 37 million (13 million are children),
may go to 50 million under the current recession!! (NYT edtrl, 11/27/08)
- Persons currently on Food Stamps: 30.31 million Up 12% this year (NYT, 2/2/09, A13).
- Number of people on Cash Welfare (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families): 4.25 million (up 1%)
- Mostly TANF is paid to single women with children. The states receive a fixed amount for this. (See NYT, 2/2/09; fp, A13)
- Americans in jail as of Dec. 31, 2003: 2,212,475
- Estimated number of American drug addicts: 11 million
- Americans currently without health insurance: 46.3 milliion Census Bureau 09/9/09
- Some of these may be on medicaid. (Currently there are 50 million people on Medicaid according to NYT 1/22/09.)
- About 15 million of these folks could afford to purchase health insurance, but choose not too. Hey, that's their choice.
- Mortgages delinquent or in foreclosure (CNBC, 9/19/08): 5.0 million
- Current Federal Minimum Wage: $5.15 (recently increased)
- Nominal work week: 40 hours. (We recommend it be reduced to 32 hours.)
- Number of mortgages (commercial and residential) outstanding: $14 trillion (Bernanke, 9/24/08)
- 50 million residential mortgages in effect. (2/5/09)
- One million houses are empty/foreclosed/abandoned in the US. (3/09)
- 800 of these are in Saginaw Michigan as described in a NYT article, 3/19/09 p A13
- Home Affordable Mortgage Program was developed for those unable to pay their mortgage due to layoffs, etc.
This page last updated: 11/6/09; supporting the unemployed since 9/01/2002. Comments/suggestions this page to: jeoll@gd2.org
Website last updated:11/6/09. page(s) 1, 8.
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