Ouch

by Ryan Avent

This is what’s known as a bad jobs report:

New claims for unemployment benefits spiked to a quarter-century high of 626,000 last week, as businesses continued shedding workers to cope with the economic downturn.

The number represents a larger-than-expected increase over the 591,000 people who filed for benefits the week before, and sets the stage for another jump in the unemployment rate for January when it is released on Friday.

The number of people continuing to collect benefits also rose, to nearly 4.8 million, and is now at the highest point since recordkeeping began about 40 years ago.

Ordinarily, we might expect continued economic deterioration to galvanize political leaders behind a plan of action, but of course Republicans, who somehow manage to control the agenda in the Senate despite their minority status, seem to believe that something between “no action” and “permanent tax cuts for the rich” is all that’s needed.

But we have a popular president who doesn’t exactly have a history of problems communicating with voters. He might consider making a quick trip around the country with tomorrow’s unemployment number in hand to explain what the stimulus is going to do — save their jobs, and their neighbors’ jobs. It wouldn’t hurt to quote the Congressional Budget Office either (or paraphrase, cleaning up the bureaucratese):

CBO estimates that the Senate legislation would raise output by between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009; by between 1.2 percent and 3.6 percent by the fourth quarter of 2010; and by between 0.4 percent and 1.2 percent by the fourth quarter of 2011. CBO estimates that the legislation would raise employment by 0.9 million to 2.5 million at the end of 2009; 1.3 million to 3.9 million at the end of 2010; and 0.6 million to 1.9 million at the end of 2011.

Why, he might ask, do Republicans want to prevent the creation of between 3 and 8 million new jobs? And why are Republicans happy to explode the budget with ill-advised tax cuts and wars, but suddenly stingy when its American jobs on the line? Or something to that effect; he’s better with rhetoric than I am.