As Americans celebrate Labor Day, the laborers being celebrated are ever fewer in number, with the US economy having lost over 8 million jobs since the recession took hold and national unemployment standing at almost 15 million people.
Last week’s figures from the US Labor Department revealed that the economy lost another 54,000 jobs in August, with the unemployment rate now standing at 9.6 percent.
On the plus side, however, the private sector created a better-than-expected 67,000 jobs in August, but this promising upturn was more than offset by the government releasing around 114,000 temporary census workers.
The private sector has actually added over 760,000 new jobs this year, but the national unemployment rate has barely moved from its 9.7 per cent figure at the start of the year.
The unemployment rate has exceeded 9 percent for 16 straight months. If it goes into next year without falling below 9 percent, it will break the record of 19 straight months above 9 percent, set after the severe recession of 1982-83.
President Obama has often said that rebuilding the economy and creating jobs is his "most urgent task," and he is expected to announce a series of proposals this week to do that, including new tax breaks for small businesses, extending research and development tax credits and creating new infrastructure projects.
“The economy is moving in a positive direction, jobs are being created; they're just not being created as fast as they need to," Obama said Friday. "We're moving in the right direction. We just have to speed it up."
