With over 15 million voters out of work, Democrats have begun to signal that they are not willing to do too much more to help them, especially the long term unemployed (those out of work 6 months or longer)
The May jobs report indicate that only 41,000 jobs private sector jobs were created last month;
Virtually all the job creation in May came from the hiring of 411,000 census workers. Such hiring peaked in May and will begin tailing off in June. By contrast, hiring by private employers, the backbone of the economy, slowed sharply.
They added just 41,000 jobs, down from 218,000 in April and the fewest since January.
"Although the economic outlook is improving, the recovery is still pretty tepid," said Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
The weakness in private hiring rattled Wall Street. Stocks tumbled and bond prices rose, as investors sought the safety of US Treasurys.[1]
Some Democrats are turning their backs on unemployed voters and have made some very bizarre comments, recently, concerning jobs and unemployment.
In a May 24 article in Washington Post[1] Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper said," businesses back home complain that they want to start hiring but are getting few applicants because Congress has repeatedly extended unemployment benefits".
In a June 4 article in the HuffPo[3] there were these statements by more Democrats;
"A year ago we were in the midst of the worst recession in 80 years and desperately trying to find ways to climb out of it," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), president of the freshman class, who credited the stimulus bill with turning the economy around. "We did the right thing and it's working. Now, a year and four months later, it's a very different situation. We are now managing a recovery and trying to sustain it."
"We've had four straight months of job growth," said Rep. Jason Altmire, a Blue Dog Democrat from Pennsylvania. "At some point you have to take a step back and look at the relative value of unemployment benefits versus people looking for jobs."
I'm not sure where these lawmakers are getting their infomation, but 15 million out of work voters makes the mid-terms elections much more perilous for Democrats than Republicans.
Having that many workers out of work during an elections cycle is something this country has not seen since the Great Depression and you can believe, if the jobs picture does not turn around soon, Democrats will have a hard time explaining that to mid-term voters.
Democrats have everything to lose if disgruntled, unemployed voters turn out at the polls come November. Unemployment may become the new third rail in politics, at least in the short term.
Last Friday, the House of Representatives finally held a vote on HR 4213, the bill that at one point, contained an extension of the filing deadline for federal UI programs (Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Federal Additional Compensation, and the full federal funding of Extended Benefits) through the end of the year, and an extension of the COBRA subsidy also through the end of the year. Unfortunately, over the course of the last two weeks, however, that bill was stripped down on many occasions, taking out and paring down programs left and right in order to satisfy the ever-growing concerns over the budget deficit.
What's most disturbing is that comments from a number of members of Congress made it clear that too many in Washington are wavering in their commitment to helping families survive this terrible job market. So more than just this extension is at stake - it's the very commitment of our nation to helping the unemployed.
As a result, by the time the bill hit the House floor for a vote, the extension of the UI programs only ran though the end of November, and the COBRA subsidy was dropped altogether. And the Senate recessed on Thursday night, so they were not around to pass this bill later on Friday or over the weekend, so yet again, we are facing at least a temporary lapse of the federal UI programs and COBRA subsidy.
All of us at NELP are devastated by the recent turn of events, in particular, the growing belief that Congress can EITHER work on job creation and supporting the unemployed OR reducing the deficit. We do not believe this is an either/or choice and NELP is going to be working very hard with our allied organizations and all of you to re-shape the dialogue and help convince Members of Congress that focusing on the jobs part of the economic recovery is the BEST way to deal with our deficit problems.
Before telling you about what comes next, we want to provide a bit of information to answer questions many of you must be asking:
· If you are ALREADY receiving the COBRA subsidy, you will be able to keep receiving it, at least through the end of this year.
· If you are in the middle of a tier of EUC, you will be able to finish that tier. However, you will not be able to move on to your next available tier of EUC unless Congress extends the filing deadline again.
· If your state permanently participates in the EB program, and you are currently receiving EBs, you will also continue to receive those. The states with a permanent EB trigger are: AK, CT, KS, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NC, OR, RI, VT and WA.
· Finally, if you are in a state that permanently participates in the EB program and your EUC tier ends before Congress reauthorizes the programs, you will then start receiving EBs.
So, what's next? Well, Congress is on recess this week, so there will be no official activity on the bill this week. But this is good - it gives all of us time to start fighting to improve the bill in the Senate. NELP will be leading the charge to get the COBRA subsidy put back into the bill before the Senate votes on it, so that those who are newly unemployed in this still-terrible job market can have a better chance of being able to maintain their personal health insurance for themselves and their families. And we know there are going to be problems with a number of Senators who are uncertain about their support for the bill for a variety of reasons (for example, some think it's still too expensive, others are upset about things that were cut, and still others don't like some of the tax provisions that are in unrelated parts of the bill).
So this week, it's very important that all of you contact your own Senators with a consistent message: abandoning the unemployed will NOT help cure the deficit problems, it will only enhance those problems. The job market is still in really bad shape and they CANNOT abandon the unemployed when unemployment remains close to 10% and job creation is not yet consistent or robust You can use this link . . . . to make your voices heard.
We will likely be asking you to take action on a number of occasions over the next few weeks, and we will send you updates as frequently as we have new information to share.
Members of unemployedworkers.org are THE most motivated and responsive group of people out there - each time we send you requests to take action, over 50% of you do so, a return rate that is practically unheard of by other groups engaging in on-line advocacy. Your voices are being heard and can effect policy in ways no one else can do, so please stay motivated and please take action whenever you can.
If you have additional questions please visit our Ask the Expert Page where you can find answers to commonly asked UI questions, you may send us your questions directly using our benefit question contact form.
As always, thanks for everything that you do.
Your friends at unemployedworkers.org
Reprinted with permission[2]
Sources:
[1] Weak Jobs Report Latest Sign 'Recovery Is Still Pretty Tepid'
http://www.cnbc.com/...
[2] Unemployment Extension - NELP: Renew Federal Jobless Benefits. Economic Recovery Depends on it!
http://magic3400.newsvine.com/...
[3] Jobs Crisis Persists As Dems Lose Appetite To Fight It
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...