The Issue: The US economy’s continued sluggishness and the loss of 360,000 people from the job market.
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Despite spending several trillion dollars in various economic-stimulus programs and bail-outs, there has been no significant improvement to our economy (“[Fewer] Jobs, Jobs, Jobs,” Editorial, Sept. 9).
Many of the unemployed have joined millions of other Americans attempting to get by on part- or full-time, minimum-wage jobs.
Almost one in six Americans are now living in poverty. A record 46 million Americans are now on food stamps. Is this what President Obama’s campaign promise of “change we can believe in” meant?
Remember: Obama said that if he couldn’t turn around the ailing economy in three years, he deserved to be a one-term president.
Larry Penner
Great Neck
When you subtract the 96,000 jobs created from the 360,000 who gave up looking for work, you have a negative job growth of 272,000.
Those 360,000 people who left the job market did so because there were no jobs for them. That means the nation’s job growth slowed by 272,000 because there were no jobs for these people.
The number also reflects senior citizens taking their retirement. Nobody is hiring workers 60 years or older. For those in their 50s, it is almost impossible to find a job.
If only 63.5 percent of adults of working age are employed today, that is a loss in tax revenue for the government.
Stephen Kogan
Elizabeth, NJ