Main Street America actually has a better handle on the economic recovery than America's leaders in Washington or the Wall Street 'know-it-alls.' The October jobless reports don't paint a pretty picture and certainly won't generate feelings of relief.
The United States economy has been contracting for a year and a half until this past September when it actually grew; mostly as a result from the $787 billion stimulus package finally is being spent.
The government did a good job, for the most part, stabilizing the economic freefall. However, the stimulus lacked in a key area: creating new jobs. The federal government's spending was large and necessary, but millions of Americans are hurting because of lack of work.
Everything is connected. Americans don't have jobs. Then consumer spending cannot increase. And provide companies more revenue to expand their businesses and hire new workers. The unemployment rate has gushed from 9.8 percent in September to 10.2 percent in October, which is the highest rate the United States has seen since the recession of 1983.
The scariest part is that all the headlines don't even bring the true scope of the situation to light. Investor's Business Daily polled Americans on their views of how successful the stimulus package was on creating jobs. Two thirds of all Americans polled believe the stimulus has fallen short of their expectations on creating jobs.
Average Americans can see the big picture better then the government. There was no real way to predict how the stimulus was going to take effect, but to completely miss the boat on the biggest tenet of the plan is reprehensible. Politicians are supposed to serve the entire population, not just a select few.
The worst part is that without another government intervention, it will take many years of booming growth to actually replace the numbers of jobs lost. These numbers are not for the faint of heart.
The unemployment rate only considers jobless people who have looked for work in the past four weeks. That means additional jobs need to be created to not only employ those out of work but the millions of Americans who just joined the work force as well.
The end result is that the United States economy is short 10.1 million jobs.
It doesn't take a Nobel Prize-winning economist to read the signs. At no time in the post-Depression era of the United States has it been more difficult to find a job, plan for the future, or even just get by.
President Barack Obama held summits at the White House with experts to discuss job creation. Americans need their leader to break ground on this issue quickly. Instead, Americans got 'bold, innovative action' from its president, legislature and private sector.
Some interesting ideas were discussed, such as a new program to employ teenagers ages 16 to 19 – an age group that has an unemployment rate of 27.6 percent according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The menacing issue with young adults being out of work is that the lack of a chance to develop skills in a work environment may handicap the potential earnings.
The debates over more stimulus spending and government programs are a popular topic. But how does any American think that these problems will get solved?
It's not the magic of free markets.
Americans need more stimulus and programs aimed specifically at job creation. Americans deserve it from the government. The only way to truly jumpstart an economy is by putting people back to work. Without that, it's all for nothing.
