America is suffering the largest employment drop since World War II. In 2007, about 63% of adult Americans had jobs. Now, only about 58% have jobs—a decline of nearly 5 percentage points.
Applied to the 230 million private civilian adults of working age, this decrease means we have nearly 12 million fewer jobs than we would have if the employment-to-population ratio were still at the 2007 level, at 63%. This is the worst job loss we have had in sixty years.
The Obama administration projects the unemployment rate will drop to 8.7 percent by the end of 2011 and 6.8 percent by 2013. That is not attainable. We would have to add nearly 300,000 jobs a month over the next three years, while many employers are wary of adding jobs without evidence that the economy won't take another downward turn.
At the rate we are adding jobs, it will take from six to nine years to climb out of this recession.
Private-sector employers are working temps and part-timers rather than hiring new employees. Many who have found full-time jobs are taking pay cuts. In addition, state and local governments are cutting jobs because of budget squeezes.
The real unemployment number is closer to 17%.
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