SOTU: Another “Pivot to Jobs”
February 12, 2013
With a contracting economy and still high unemployment, the Obama Administration is leaking word that in his State of the Union address the President will “pivot to jobs.” This address needs to be different from the half-dozen or more times the President has claimed he would pivot back to jobs. He needs to follow up his speech with clear and constant leadership on the economy.
In his first State of the Union, President Obama promised he was focused on jobs. He immediately lost focus and gave priority to policies that advanced his spending agenda instead. Every few months since, he’s announced that he was pivoting back to jobs and the economy.
Just last week, President Obama continued this trend, saying, “I’m going to be talking about making sure that we’re focused on job creation here in the United States of America.”
The unemployment rate is higher than when President Obama took office four years ago. There are 22.7 million Americans who are unemployed, under-employed or have simply grown frustrated and stopped looking for work altogether. Undoubtedly many Americans are wondering why jobs have not been the Administration’s focus for the last four years. Why weren’t jobs the focus of the President’s inaugural address last month?
Many Parts of the Economy Are Struggling
On February 1, the Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent for January 2013. The national unemployment rate has hovered around eight percent for more than a year now, and there is little relief in sight. Just last week the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said Americans will face unemployment of 7.5 percent or higher for a sixth consecutive year in 2014.
Construction
In remarks to House Democrats last week, President Obama said he wants to ensure that if somebody works hard in this country, such as a construction worker, that they should be able to make a living. As of January 2013 there are 5,731,000 workers employed in the construction industry. This is down more than 800,000 workers compared to the 6,554,000 employed when the President took office in January 2009 – a 13 percent drop. Employment in construction increased, with 28,000 new construction jobs in January. At this rate, the industry can hope to reach its pre-Obama level in another 29 months – or June 2015. Job growth in the construction industry is critical for growth in down-stream industries such as the furniture, home building, and flooring industries, among others.
“Clean Energy”
The President promised at the beginning of his first term to create long-lasting “clean energy” jobs, and committed $90 billion in stimulus funds to make it a reality. But all he achieved was wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on companies that later went bankrupt. The most famous example is Solyndra, which ended up costing an average of $6 million for every job created, only to lay off 1,100 workers when it declared bankruptcy. When the President’s “clean energy” investment program did create jobs, they were outrageously expensive, temporary, or overseas.
Manufacturing
The manufacturing industry, long the backbone of the American economy, employed 12,556,000 workers in January 2009. Since then, it has shed more than 600,000 workers and now employs 11,950,000. This represents an industry decline of five percent.
Information Industry
Employment in the information industry is also struggling to recover to its pre-Obama employment levels. The information industry is comprised of publishing, data processing, broadcast, and telecommunications jobs. In January 2009, the information industry employed 2,886,000 workers. Last month’s employment data shows this industry has shrunk to 2,691,000 – a decline of seven percent since President Obama took office.
While the President talks about the need for more jobs, his policies over the past four years have not helped create an environment in which the private sector can actually create those jobs. In fact, many of those policies, such as the President’s health care law, have raised the cost of hiring. The steps to U.S. economic growth and jobs have been well articulated: a simpler and more competitive tax code; regulatory simplification; and a fiscal policy that balances Washington’s budget responsibly. It’s time for the President to stop pivoting around jobs and finally do something to help the people who desperately need those jobs.
