If anybody still thinks the $862 billion “stimulus” has created the jobs it was supposed to create, the latest unemployment report should finally put that notion to rest.
The stimulus was passed almost entirely by Democrats – with President Barack Obama’s support – more than two years ago. You may recall one of the Obama administration’s key claims about the bill. Just days after taking office, the administration said that if Congress passed the stimulus, unemployment would not exceed 8 percent.
But in fact, a month after the stimulus passed, joblessness hit 8.6 percent – before eventually skyrocketing to more than 10 percent. Not once in the 27 months since the stimulus became law has unemployment fallen below 8 percent – nor even gotten down close to that figure.
That remained sadly true last month. The U.S. Labor Department reported that joblessness rose from 8.8 percent to 9 percent in April, and that about 14 million Americans were unemployed. Although some businesses did add employees, natural growth of the workforce offset job creation.
And even the painfully high 9 percent unemployment rate does not tell the whole, unhappy story of joblessness in America. That “official” rate does not include millions of Americans who have given up the job search in frustration, nor the millions who need full-time work but can find only part-time jobs. When those groups are included, the so-called “underemployment” rate was nearly 16 percent in April.