Aug. 23, 2012, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement responding to a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report showing that extended unemployment benefits are running out:
“In the past year, Congress’ extended unemployment benefits welfare scheme ran out for 1.3 million people. And there is still no work to be found for them. They have become permanently unemployed. Since Obama took office, the labor force participation rate has dropped from 65.7 percent to 63.7 percent, with about 4.8 million people who have dropped out and simply stopped looking for work.
“The data is simply devastating. The number of people employed has only grown by 2.7 million in the past year, not even coming close to keeping up with the growth of the noninstitutional population has grown by 3.6 million. Meanwhile, the number of people not in the labor force has grown by 2 million — in a single year! Since the beginning of 2008, a net 4.1 million jobs have been lost while the employable population grew by 10.7 million!
“The establishment’s hope was that by priming the pump with more than $3 trillion of monetary and fiscal ‘stimulus’ at the beginning of the recession, and ramping up the welfare apparatus in the near-term, eventually, a robust recovery would ensue, and the temporary measures could be repealed. But the government did nothing to make it more cost-effective to do business here in America, to encourage investment here. So, now we’re just floating along, no real growth recovery, and certainly no recovery in the jobs market.
“New college graduates cannot find work, those who lost their jobs in the recession still cannot find work 4 years later, and the government’s tepid support programs and ‘stimulus’ did nothing to turn the economy around. We’re dead in the water, no matter what the happy talkers say.”
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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