The January jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics
continues the bad news of the past four years. During President
Bush's first term, the US economy had a net loss of
three-quarters of a million private sector jobs. Despite three
years of economic recovery, fewer Americans are employed in the
private sector today than when Bush was first inaugurated four
years ago. The slight decline in the unemployment rate reported
for January is not the result of new jobs; it is the result of
large numbers of discouraged people, many with university
degrees, dropping out of the work force. They cannot find
employment and have given up looking. During Bush's first term,
the once fabled US economy has been unable to create jobs in
export sectors or in import-competitive sectors. January's
134,000 new private sector jobs are in domestic services that
cannot be outsourced: couriers and messengers, food services and
drinking places, health care and social assistance, educational
services, temporary help, retail, and credit intermediation. US
imports are now 50 percent greater than US exports, putting
tremendous pressure on the US dollar. US dependence on imported
manufactured goods has resulted in exploding trade deficits,
which are growing more than five times faster than the US
economy. The explosive growth of the US trade deficit since 1990
has turned $3.3 trillion of US assets over to foreigners. [more]
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