The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its monthly report on Friday. The unemployment rate is expected to remain in the double-digits. But as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert observed, the jobs numbers only tell part of the story:
Forget the false hope of modestly improving monthly job numbers. The real story right now is the entrenched suffering (with no end in sight) that has been inflicted on scores of millions of working Americans by the Great Recession and the misguided economic policies that preceded it.And right now is not the time to drop the ball on job creation. So, the Progressive States Network is circulating petitions to keep the heat on President Barack Obama and members of Congress:
To add your name to the petition, click here.As leaders in state legislatures across the country, we urgently call on President Obama and the Congress to enact a new, broad-based job creation plan, including significant additional fiscal relief to states and local governments to foster economic growth and create and maintain jobs across the nation.
Almost eight million more Americans are unemployed today than at the start of the recession in December 2007. The number of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed has reached over 27 million. State tax revenues dropped nine percent during fiscal year 2009, the largest decline since the years directly following World War II. As states are forced to slash programs and jobs, more and more Americans are relying on public services.
