“Unchanged, or only slightly changed: Unemployment rate for adult men is 7.6 percent, for when it's 7.4 percent, for teenagers it's 25 percent, for white people it's 7.3 percent, and for Asian it's 6.2 percent. Hispanics are still suffering with 10.3 percent unemployment, and for African Americans the rate remains a stunningly high 14 percent.”
Finding real solutions to joblessness
1. Spend Spend Spend
The stimulus worked, but it wasn't big enough. Far too much of the package was devoted to nonproductive tax cuts for the wealthy, and far too little on direct spending that creates jobs. We need more direct spending on infrastructure
Obama observed that restoring jobs in construction and in state and local government at the same rate they experienced during previous recessions would reduce the overall unemployment rate to 6 percent, and some economists think that figure is low.
The CBO estimates that the last round of direct stimulus spending of $300 billion created 1.4 million jobs. We need to spend at least that much again, and we need to restore Federal support for state and local budgets.
2. Give financial relief to people who have been financially struggling and have put off needed spending - on vehicles, home improvements, and the like - as well as reasonable amenities.
Homeowners owe $800 billion in "negative equity" to banks for non-existent real estate value.
Tax the wealthy, help homeowners, and spend some money to put more people back to work.
