Unemployment Rate Increases to 9 Percent
The Labor Department’s monthly jobs report released today shows that unemployment increased from 8.8 percent to 9 percent in April. Back in February 2009, the Obama administration promised that the $819 billion “stimulus” spending package would keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent. The unemployment rate hit double digits in late 2009 and has hovered around 10 percent ever since. The official government unemployment rate does not factor in the nearly one million discouraged workers that have given up searching for a job. Only people who have actively searched for a job in the last few months are counted in the unemployment rate. This means that the actual unemployment could be significantly higher.
The only good news is 244,000 new jobs were created last month. However, the number of people looking for work is increasing at a faster rate than jobs are being created. The Chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers Austan Goolsbee says that “we are seeing signs that the initiatives put in place by this administration… are creating the conditions for companies to add new jobs.” The opposite is true. Initiatives put in place by the Obama administration such as ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law are job killers. The best solution is for the government to get out of the way and let the private sector create jobs.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) released a statement today saying that “increasing the national debt limit without significant spending cuts and fundamental budget reforms, as President Obama has proposed, will compound these problems and further hamper job creation in America.” He’s right. Congress must act to stop its spending addiction immediately for the sake of economic growth.
We still have a long way to go before we experience true and lasting recovery. One of the best ways to spur job growth is to remove all of the many burdensome regulations on job creators. The United States currently has the highest corporate tax rate in the world. A significant cut to the corporate tax rate will help America stay competitive in the global marketplace. Simultaneously, Congress should promote job growth by making the 2001-2003 tax cuts permanent for all Americans. These steps are crucial to reduce the high 9 percent unemployment rate that we still face.
