SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY JOB CREATION

AUGUST 6, 2004

SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY -
JOB CREATION

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued "The Bush Administration Misstatement of the Day" on job creation.

Yesterday, during a campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio, President Bush told supporters that while "some people are nervous" about the economy, he assured them "there are jobs out there." (Washington Post, August 6, 2004)

Today, however, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that only 32,000 jobs were added last month, even though analysts had predicted that the economy would create between 215,000 and 247,000 jobs in July.

The BLS reported:

• Nonfarm employment was little changed (+32,000) in July.

• The unemployment rate has shown little movement since December 2003.

• Both the number of unemployed persons, 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate, 5.5 percent, were essentially unchanged in July.

• The number of persons who were marginally attached to the labor force was 1.6 million in July, the same as a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals wanted and were available to work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months.

• There were 504,000 discouraged workers in July, little changed from a year earlier. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, were not currently looking for work specifically because they believed no jobs were available for them.