Obama Aides See ‘Extended Period’ of Unemployment

[The Northerner]

Source: Bloomberg

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. employers won’t hire enough workers this year to lower the jobless rate much below the level of 9.7 percent reached in February, three Obama administration economic officials said today.

The proportion of Americans who can’t find work is likely to “remain elevated for an extended period,” Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, White House budget director Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in a joint statement. The officials said unemployment may even rise “slightly” over the next few months as discouraged workers start job-hunting again.

“We do not expect further declines in unemployment this year,” the officials said in testimony prepared for the House Appropriations Committee. They predicted the economy would add about 100,000 jobs a month on average -- not enough to bring the jobless rate down substantially.

Today’s projections are in line with the 10 percent average unemployment forecast for this year in last month’s budget plan. Christopher Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said the administration’s language risks damping expectations for a recovery.

“They need to work on the message, and right now the message is that there is not a lot to be hopeful about,” Rupkey said. “Warning about a slow jobless recovery can help make it a reality.”

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aXaMufrB.FA0

[jody]

1. Yeah "‘Extended Period’ of Unemployment" followed by years of Underemployment. n/t

[OhioChick]

14. +1 n/t

[midnight]

2. Two wars, closed banking/collapsing access to money for main street, closed

and private markets for anyone other than the elite"Who don't create jobs", I wonder how they plan to turn this around?????

[LisaM]

3. And the wars are boosting employement numbers

Don't get me wrong, I want to get out of both, but I believe the employment numbers are inflated by active military.

[jgraz]

4. Public sees 'extended period' of unemployment for Obama aides

Starting somewhere around 2013...

[emilyg]

7. Sooner, please.

[lib2DaBone]

5. However..companies are hiring in Mexico....

..as offshoring continues at a record pace... while our CONgress does NOTHING.

[pattmarty]

6. Third world, here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Speciesamused]

10. I have been saying that for years.

We have become a sad country.

[pattmarty]

22. Yes we have.

[JDPriestly]

8. Don't the understand that it's their job to make sure Americans have jobs?

Roosevelt did. My parents are and were forever grateful to Roosevelt for helping them make it through their late teens and early twenties.

Obama needs to face reality: either he does something about unemployment or he is responsible for what happens when a lot of idle, impatient, angry people try to do something about it for themselves. We Americans are very, very patient, but we do have stomachs, we do get hungry, and we have a lot of energy, creativity and ambition and need to be doing and making things. High unemployment rates will have social and political repercussions -- and they are likely to be very ugly for whoever happens to be sitting in power and does nothing about helping ordinary people.

[WriteDown]

9. What happened to the "laser-like focus" on jobs? nt

[No Elephants]

11. They focused--and saw an extended period of unemployment (following this extended

period of unemployment).

[WriteDown]

12. Good point. nt

[Psephos]

21. Your dyslexia is kicking in again. The actual line was "loser-like focus."

What about that January promise of a "pivot to jobs, jobs, jobs"?

:shrug:

[WriteDown]

23. I hate my lysdexia. nt

[Ignis]

13. They finally figured that out? DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

:banghead:

[high density]

15. Let's keep offshoring

CEOs need more Porsches. The wealthy need larger dividend checks!

[OhioChick]

16. USA! USA! USA! n/t

[Demeter]

17. I Wish Obama's Aides Had Seen Extended Periods of Unemployment

Especially Uncle Ben Bernanke, Timmy in the Well Geithner, and Larry the Cable Guy Summers. Oh, and Rahmbo, of course!

[depakid]

18. Economists warned the administration and congress that this would be the case

if the stimulus failed to close the output gap and didn't provide substantially more aid to the states (to which Congress responded by slashing the amount by $40 billion).

They asked for it- they got it.

[IDemo]

19. "Discouraged worker" - as damnable a phrase as "collateral damage" n/t

[Luciferous]

20. The company my husband works for laid off 3 more employees

this week. So far they have laid off 80% of their employees in the past 2 years. Most of them will not be coming back. There was also an entire department in his company that didn't work last week. We are starting to get worried.