America in a ditch

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

“Today’s numbers underline the need to act, and to act now.” said Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) at a Joint Economic Committee hearing today.

Today, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate has risen from 7.2 to 7.6 percent and according to other figures released, 3.6 million jobs have been lost since the recession began in December 2007, including the nearly 600,000 jobs lost in January only.

Senator Robert P. Casey (D-PA) was particularly alarmed from the minority unemployment statistics expressing that, “As bad as this recession has been overall for all Americans it has had a particularly disproportionate adverse effect on African Americans and Latinos.” Since the start of the recession, December, 2007, the unemployment rate for African-Americans has gone from 8.9 to 12.6 percent and for Latino’s it has risen from 6.2 to 9.7 percent.

The sectors of education and healthcare have maintained relative stability and there has been a job growth seen in those areas. There was a rise in jobs in education and that area has gained 39,000 jobs and in healthcare there has been a growth of 19,000 jobs. In the past three months the motor vehicle and parts industry has lost 75,000 jobs in the major auto producing states.

Chairwoman Maloney ended her opening statement by discussing the economic recovery package. “Alarm bells are sounding and our economic recovery package must make its way to the President as soon as possible. The current economic crisis requires bold solutions that address the magnitude of our economic woes, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will do just that.” she said.