Issue Position: Creating Jobs

Issue Position

The unemployment caused by the 2008 financial crisis was the worst since the 1980's, and followed a period of eight years in which there was no net job growth. When the crisis hit, unemployment skyrocketed, with more than 700,000 jobs lost in January 2009 alone. Although the emergency intervention stopped the job loss and avoided a second Depression, recovering from the mismanagement of the last decade will take years. This recovery begins by rebalancing our economy and returning to the policies that resulted in the creation of more than 22 million new jobs during the 1990's.

Job Loss During the Financial Crisis of 2008.

Going into the financial crisis, the economy had been steadily losing jobs at a rate of 150,000 per month. When the crisis hit in fall 2008, unemployment skyrocketed, and most economists saw a serious risk of entering another Depression. Fortunately, the increasing job loss was halted and reversed by a timely and necessary intervention -- the same intervention that reversed the drop in Household Net Worth.

Job Creation in America

Recent history shows that America knows how to create jobs -- if the economy is competently managed.

* According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the eight-year period from March 2001 through March 2009, no net jobs had been created - and in fact 430,000 jobs had been lost. This was the worst 8-year record for job loss in our nation's history.
* In contrast, during the previous 8 years from March 1993 to March 2001, over 22 million jobs were created -- the best 8-year period of continuous job creation in our nation's history.

Rebalancing our Economy for Long-Term Job Growth

We know how to make our economy create jobs: reverse the errors of the past decade and return to what worked in the 1990's. Fixing these flawed policies and the damage they caused, will take time. It took a decade of bad leadership and misplaced priorities to get into this mess, and it will take years to recover.

Our Economy Has Been Mismanaged and Growing out of Balance for Years.

* We have favored Imports and Consumption over Exports and Manufacturing.
* We have favored the Service Economy and Finance over Manufacturing and Agriculture.
* We have favored Consumption & Debt over Savings and Investment.
* Finally, as a nation we have been living off of the "fake income" from rapidly appreciating housing prices and the real estate bubble.

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