EDITORIAL

Jobs crisis

Pathetic state of the American job market

3/11/2014

February's job creation figures, reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, underline the continuing pathetic state of the American job market.

New jobs for the month numbered a middling 175,000, but the average for the past three months was a pale 121,000. The unemployment rate was 6.7 percent, masking a 203,000-person increase in long-term joblessness among Americans, a number that now stands at 3.8 million.

President Obama’s cheerleading on the subject, or Democratic efforts to blame it on Republicans, or vice versa, should be of no satisfaction to Americans who want to work, or want to be paid a living wage for the work they do.

Federal and state leaders and lawmakers need to take serious action to tackle the problem. Many of them will be busy this year pursuing money from non-job-creators to finance their re-elections. That may encourage taxpayers to turn them out of office in the primaries and in November, based on their inadequate performance in the face of an employment crisis.