It’s a terrible thing for anyone to really need a job, want a job, be able to perform a job – but be jobless.
And we have far too many of our people in that predicament these days.
If we had “full” employment, the unemployment rate might be about 5 percent, just because of people voluntarily moving from one community or one job to another. But it is very painful now that 9.6 percent of our people who want jobs reportedly are unemployed in this period of general economic crisis.
There are some government assistance programs to help tide people over, while they hope their savings won’t run out. Some people may find part-time work. But chronic joblessness is a very serious problem.
Some economists predict the situation will get worse, passing 10 percent unemployment early next year.
We are eager for our economy to pick up, and provide more job opportunities. But unfortunately, we have been, and are still doing, too many things governmentally and otherwise that are making economic recovery much too slow.