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Heritage
Network…
Morning
Bell: Anemic Job Growth
Continues
Amy Payne
October 5, 2012
Job
growth continues to
sputter—this morning’s jobs report shows that 12.1 million Americans
are still
out of work.
Going
against other economic indicators,
the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. Economists are already
looking
into the drop, saying it seems to be a statistical fluke, because it
doesn’t
match up with the sluggish job creation and recent downward revision of
GDP
growth. Heritage’s J.D. Foster says:
One
time out of a hundred, the true
figure will be much different than the reported figure. One time out of
a
hundred for a monthly survey means about once every eight years. What
seems to
have occurred with the September household survey is the one time in a
hundred.
The last time the household survey showed such a huge jump in
employment was in
1983 during the Reagan-era economic boom. Today’s economy does not look
much
like the Reagan boom.
The
real story, then, from the more
reliable employment survey is the economy created a paltry 114,000
jobs,
leaving 12.1 million out in the cold. This story is getting old. And
the
economy has no good news to look forward to.
Congress
has gone home until after
the election. When it returns to Washington, the end of 2012 will be
staring us
in the face. In just a few short months, the largest tax increase in
history
will hit America. It sounds like hyperbole, and we only wish that were
the
case. It’s been dubbed Taxmageddon, because for millions of workers it
will be
an end-of-working pink slip scenario. But on January 1, a nearly $500
billion
tax increase will slam the economy.
Not
only will this mean individual
tax increases—if you’re a middle-class family, your taxes will go up
around
$4,100—but the whole economy will also suffer. The Congressional Budget
Office
has said that unless Congress and the President act, we will be plunged
into a
new recession extending through 2013—when we haven’t even recovered
from the
previous one.
The
irresponsible behavior of
Congress and the President in bringing the nation to this state means a
significant slowdown is already almost certain. Mounting uncertainty
about
what, if anything, Washington will do is rapidly draining the vitality
out of
the economy.
The
facts are plain: The economy
will shrink and unemployment will spike unless Congress acts to prevent
Taxmageddon. If Congress and the President choose to continue to play
politics
with the economy, we stand to lose 1.6 million more jobs.
Why
can’t we seem to recover from
the most recent recession? According to a new report by Heritage’s
Salim Furth,
a select group of businesses isn’t hiring: start-ups.
Read
the rest of the article at the
Heritage Network
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