President Obama will deliver his third State of the Union address on Tuesday night. According to a preview video released this weekend, the speech will outline Obama’s vision for improving the economy and creating jobs. With an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent, there’s much work to be done. But after three years of Obama’s failed policies, it’s unclear if anything Obama says Tuesday night will differ from the Keynesian ideas he’s already proposed. This week’s chart comes from Heritage’s analysis of the December unemployment report. The economy added 200,000 jobs …
New polling data reveals that voters in Iowa and New Hampshire overwhelmingly believe the federal budget deficit is the most important economic issue facing the United States today. Despite the nation’s persistent high unemployment rate, voters in the two early-voting states chose the deficit by wide margins. The CNN/Time/ORC poll was conducted before and after Christmas with 999 registered Republicans in Iowa and a total of 1,508 adults in New Hampshire. The results, released Wednesday, paint a clear picture about what voters are thinking about heading into 2012. They also …
When it comes to creating jobs, North Dakota has found the right formula. The state has the largest percentage increase in employment over the past year and was the fastest of all 50 to recover from the recession. The reason is simple: energy production. “North Dakota has been the poster child for what can happen when we unleash free enterprise and allow states to develop and commercialize their resources,” Heritage’s Nick Loris wrote recently on The Foundry. “North Dakota is drilling at record pace.” The state’s unemployment rate is 3.4 …
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that employers added 117,000 jobs in July, up from June’s dismal 18,000 but still below the number needed to keep pace with population growth. The unemployment rate also fell 0.1 percent to 9.1 percent. Get complete analysis from Heritage’s Rea Hederman and James Sherk, who produce a monthly jobs and employment report. All eyes will again be on Wall Street today. After the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than 500 points yesterday, the world eagerly awaits reaction to today’s jobs report. …
President Obama will meet with congressional leaders tomorrow to resume talks on the debt limit. The rare Sunday meeting between top Republicans and Democrats could signal the start of “hard bargaining” after Thursday’s debt talks left the parties far apart. While Democrats want tax increases on the table in debt negotiations, Republicans have reiterated their “no tax-hike” stance — a position they reiterated following yesterday’s unemployment report that revealed only a measly 18,000 jobs were created last month. If that isn’t enough reason to keep Democrats from proposing tax increases, perhaps the ambiguity …
The stock market reacted favorably this morning when it was announced that the number of people on payrolls fell by 36,000 in February, better than the 50,000 loss expected by economists. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7%, also slightly better than expected. Another indicator that may have received less attention is the 15-Week unemployment rate—the percent of the labor force that has been unemployed for 15 weeks or longer and is still looking for employment. In December, 2007 this statistic stood at only 1.6%. In February, 2010, it was …
Heritage expert Alison Fraser on jobs
In a discussion about the economy and the stimulus package President Obama signed into law earlier in the year, Vice President Joe Biden last Sunday said, “Jobs are being created that would not have been there before. Can I claim credit that all that’s due to the recovery package? No. But it clearly has had an impact.” The Department of Labor today released its monthly jobs report. Does it validate the Vice President’s remarks? No. The jobs report provides no evidence that the stimulus is working. If anything, it suggests …
In January, President Obama pressed for an $800 billion economic “stimulus” package to turn the economy around. Though the bill largely consisted of increased spending on traditional liberal priorities, the President claimed that it would “create or save” 3.5 million jobs. The President’s economic advisors predicted that unemployment would rise to 9 percent by 2010 if Congress did not pass the stimulus bill, but that with the stimulus unemployment would stay below 8 percentage points.
The economy shed 345,000 jobs in May and the unemployment has jumped to 9.4 percent, its highest level since 1983, and this is regarded as good news? Yes. In a way, it is good news, as it agrees with other evidence that the rate of decline in the economy is abating. Abating means it’s still declining, but not as fast, which is an obvious necessary step before the economy can find a bottom this fall and then begin actually to grow again. During last year’s political campaign and as he …
