JOB GROWTH CONTINUES; UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DROPS

The Department of Labor announces the creation of 128,000 jobs in August. Needless to say, Ms. Pelosi had to issue a statement decrying the report. Here’s what Ms. Pelosi said:

“Today’s disappointing jobs report proves President Bush and the Republicans are out of touch with Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck and are struggling to make ends meet. First, we had a so-called ‘recovery’ without jobs; now we have a ‘recovery’ without wage increases. And yet President Bush continues to assert that ‘Things are good for American workers.’
“Just 128,000 jobs were created in August, less than the number needed just to keep pace with the growing labor force. Another 11,000 manufacturing jobs lost. With today’s lackluster jobs report, President Bush still has the worst job creation record of any President since the Great Depression.

Ms. Pelosi must’ve skipped History in school because she seems to have forgotten about the meager job creation during the Carter administration. Here’s what the Labor Department’s website says about the Carter Administration’s record:

The Department played a major role in the President’s economic stimulus program. It received about $8 billion for Public Service Employment and other programs under CETA. Public service jobs increased from 310,000 in 1976 to a peak of 725,000 in 1978. The Department also expanded the Job Corps and other youth training programs. It developed and tested new ways to meet employment related needs of rural workers and Native Americans. It improved on-the-job training for veterans and others through the Hope through Industry Retraining and Employment program. This program provided incentives for companies to hire and train needy persons. A Skill Training Improvement Program provided retraining for displaced workers to prepare them for jobs by giving them skills which were in short supply.

To deal with the enduring social problem of youth unemployment the Youth Employment and Demonstration Projects Act was made law in 1977. There were four main components. Youth Community Conservation and Improvement Projects and Youth Employment and Training Programs involved neighborhoods, local community organizations and local labor unions in job creation and training. Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects tested a variety of new approaches to youth employment. Modeled on the Depression-era CCC, the Young Adult Conservation Corps provided disadvantaged youths with work on needed conservation projects on public lands and waters.

Another program to stimulate increased employment of the disadvantaged in the private sector was the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit. This allowed employers to claim tax credits for a limited period for hiring workers from selected groups of particularly needy persons. Groups targeted included disadvantaged youths, veterans, ex-offenders, handicapped persons and persons on welfare. The USES administered the Department’s portion of the program.

In 1978 Congress passed and the President signed the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act, better known as the Humphrey-Hawkins Act. Drafted with assistance from the Department, this law did not create any specific programs. Rather, it called for government-wide planning and action to achieve reduced unemployment and, eventually, zero inflation. This Act found strong expression in many aspects of the Department’s employment and training program, including: targeting assistance to reduce long-term unemployment; improving coordination with private business; reducing youth unemployment, and; assisting adult workers dislocated because of foreign competition.

In other words, the Carter Administration’s job growth ‘record’ was artificially enhanced by government programs that ‘created’ jobs with federal spending. Ms. Pelosi seems to have forgotten that the only thing noteworthy about the Carter Administration’s job ‘growth’ was the creation of the term ‘misery index’, the combination of the unemployment rate and inflation rate. The other thing that’s worth noting is that Carter’s administration had to pass the Humphrey-Hawkins Full Employment Act to have any job creation. They still couldn’t get the unemployment rate below 6 percent.

The last thing we need is a Democratic House that will raise taxes and spend money like a drunken sailor. If that’s Dermocrats’ idea of a new direction, then we’re far better off staying the course we’re on.