According to an article by the Huffington Post, job cuts made by the federal government are slowing down the economic recovery. Since the recession began in December of 2007, state and local governments have cut more than half a million jobs. To add to the downfall, the federal government has been cutting jobs as well.
According to Labor Department statistics, state governments have cut 49,000 jobs over the past year and localities 210,000. To top those statistics off, there are 30,000 fewer federal workers now than a year ago – including 5,300 Postal Service jobs canceled last month.
On the contrary, private-sector jobs have increased over the past 12 months by 1.6 million. “The public sector didn’t start to lose jobs right away. But then it did as the budget crunch really hit. State governments are not allowed to run deficits. So the private sector is expanding while the public sector is shedding jobs – to the tune of 35,000 jobs a month,” said economist Heidi Shierholz of the labor-aligned Economic Policy Institute in the Post.
As Obama starts his election campaign for 2012, it is interesting to note that no president has been reelected with the unemployment rate as high as it is today, at around 9 percent, since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and 1940.
SOURCE: Huffington Post
Add comment