Job Losses At Great Depression Level

9-29-3

Instead of creating 510,000 jobs in 2003, as President Bush predicted, the Republican-led economy has suffered a net loss of 473,000 jobs so far this year.1/2

 

The Timken Company, an Ohio-based steel and bearings manufacturer where the President launched his Jobs and Growth package in April, embarrassed the Administration two weeks ago with an announcement it will cut 900 jobs.3

 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that mass layoffs were the cause of 134,000 jobs lost in August.4 August marked the seven consecutive month of job losses, a cold dose of reality in the face of the President's wishful rhetoric.5

 

The President sold his tax package last spring as a mechanism to create jobs, saying, "[T]he best way to create demand for goods and services is to let people have more of their own money . . . that's why tax relief is important in the year 2003 . . .

 

[T]hat's what the whole purpose of the package is, to create the conditions for job growth."6

 

His promises haven't borne out, but the President has tried to ignore the reality, claiming most recently two weeks ago in Michigan, "I'm sure the numbers are beginning to look better."7 At the same time, Vice President Dick Cheney said, "the tax-cut package that we've passed now three times does offer very bright prospects for the future."8

 

So far, however, economic growth has not translated into jobs. In the past 22 months just over one million Americans have lost their job. Added to the 1.78 million lost jobs during the seven-month recession, the period represents the largest sustained loss of jobs since the Great Depression.9

 

Sources:

1. "The President's Jobs and Growth Plan: Creating New Jobs", White House Fact Sheet.

2. "Bush Wants to Create More Jobs, but How?", New York Times, 9/28/03.

3. "Timken Lowers Sights, Plans to Cut 900 Jobs," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/19/03, p. B11.

4. "134,000 Lost Jobs in August 'Mass Layoffs'", Washington Post, 9/26/03

5. "August Jobs Miss Administration's Target," Economic Policy Institute, 9/5/03.

6. Presidential Speech, 4/24/03.

7. Presidential Speech, 9/15/03.

8. Meet the Press, 9/14/03.

9. "Defying Forecast, Job Losses Mount for a 22nd Month," New York Times, 9/06/03.

 

http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df09292003.html

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What a wonderful record; of destruction.