The unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent in October, the
highest rate since April 1983, the Department of Labor reported
this morning. Psychologically speaking, I think the jump to
"double digit" unemployment will make it a lot more difficult for
the Obama administration to argue that the economic stimulus
program is working well. The economy shed 190,000 jobs in
October, which is a slower rate of losses than the revised
219,000 in September but higher than the 154,000 loses in
August. There were also 808,000 discouraged workers who are not
included in the unemployment rate because they aren't looking for
work because they believe no jobs are available. That number is
up from 706,000 in September.
And let us not forget that when President Obama pitched the
economic stimulus package in a February prime time press
conference, he was pretty clear about his "bottom
line":
My bottom line is to make sure that we are saving or creating 4
million jobs....
So my bottom line when it comes to the recovery package is send
me a bill that creates or saves 4 million jobs....
But my bottom line is, are we creating 4 million jobs, and are
we laying the foundation for long-term economic growth?...
And there was also this exchange:
QUESTION: -- how can the American people gauge whether or not
your programs are working?
Can they -- should they be looking at the metric of the stock
market, home foreclosures, unemployment? What metric should
they use? When? And how will they know if it's working or
whether or not we need to go to a Plan B?
MR. OBAMA: I think my initial measure of success is creating or
saving 4 million jobs. That's bottom line number one, because
if people are working, then they've got enough confidence to
make purchases, to make investments. Businesses start seeing
that consumers are out there with a little more confidence. And
they start making investments, which means they start hiring
workers.
So step number one, job creation.
Since the economic stimulus bill passed, about 2.9 million jobs
have now been lost.
