Commentary

Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on May Jobs Report


Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–June 1, 2012.  May’s employment report shows the economy continues to confront strong headwinds. The addition of a mere 65,000 jobs last month and a small uptick in the unemployment rate is alarming and unacceptable. 

Most frustrating is the fact that it is not the means for recovery that lack, but rather the will. For purely political and cynical reasons, Republicans in Congress have blocked President Obama’s efforts to maintain momentum for growth, whether it’s the American Jobs Act or routine highway infrastructure investments. Moreover, under the leadership of Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and John Boehner, Republicans are also looking to cut back on policies that provide relief for the millions of working families worrying about how to pay the bills and how to make ends meet. 

The employment report’s hint of a renewed slowdown also tells a deeper story. Not only did the financial crash of 2008 trigger the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, it also showed that the economic model we have been following for thirty years has profound flaws. 

We need continued expansionary policy to keep the economy moving forward, but the President and Congress must also push deeper changes and reforms if recovery is ever to generate shared prosperity. That means policies which reconnect wages to productivity growth, strengthen manufacturing, and correct the trade deficit, particularly with China.

Source: aflcio.org


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