Unemployment Shows No Improvement In August

President Obama is scheduled to speak to Congress about his new jobs program on September 8th, and it couldn't come soon enough. What he proposes probably won't be nearly enough, and regardless of how inadequate it is, the Republican House will probably kill it. They seem determined to kill any effort that might actually create some jobs, and they have been very successful in that.

Yesterday the Labor Department released its unemployment figures for the month of August, and they weren't good. According to them the country's net production of jobs was zero last month. Although private industry created a pathetic 17,000 jobs, the government laid off an equal number. The official government unemployment rate remained at 9.1%. Since it takes about 150,000 new jobs just to take care of new entrants to the work force, that means about that same number of unemployed people gave up in August (and are no longer being counted by the government). So while the government says the rate remained steady, there are actually more people out of work than in July. Here are the official government numbers:

Unemployment rate..........9.1%
Number of unemployed (counted)..........14 million
Number of unemployed (not counted)..........2.6 million
Total unemployed (probably an undercount)..........16.6 million
Total workforce..........153.6 million
Real unemployment rate..........10.8%
Underemployed (working part-time but want full-time)..........8.8 million
unemployment/underemployment rate..........16.5%

Adult men..........8.9%
Adult women..........8.0%
Teenagers..........25.4%
Whites..........8.0%
Blacks..........16.7%
Hispanics..........11.3%
Asians..........7.1%
Remember, these are probably lower than the real unemployment rates for all these groups since the government stops counting anyone who became frustrated and hasn't looked for work in the last four weeks.

The Republicans keep telling us that lowering taxes for the rich will result in new job creation, but the massive Bush tax cuts were extended months ago and there is yet to be any substantial job production from private industry. The August figure of 17,000 is not substantial and not even close to the job creation numbers needed to get the economy moving again (and the much ballyhooed but inadequate numbers for June and July have been lowered by the Labor Department -- from 46,000 down to 20,000 for June, and from 117,000 down to 85,000 for July).

The truth is that taxes and regulations, the two things Republicans want to adjust to create jobs, really have nothing to do with job creation. Businesses hire workers when they need them to make or deliver their product or service, and lay them off when they don't -- regardless of the level of taxes and regulations. That is a fundamental tenet of good business practice.

This is verified by a recent McClatchy Poll. While the Republicans have been busy protecting the interests of the giant corporations, McClatchy decided to find out why small businesses, the main creators of jobs in this country, weren't hiring. Unsurprisingly, they found it had nothing to do with taxes or government regulations. Here are the top three reasons:

Lack of demand (consumers aren't buying)
Cost of insurance (both business and health)
Cost of workman's compensation

The tax rates, government regulations, and the budget deficit are not the biggest problem facing America right now. The biggest problem by far is unemployment. It must be fixed before any of our other economic problems can be fixed (and fixing unemployment combined with asking the rich to pay their fair share of taxes would solve the budget deficit without massive cuts to government). The Republicans won't admit it, but that's just the way it is.