The economy added only 112,000 new jobs in the month of June, less than what is needed to keep up with population changes and well below job growth over the past few months. Unemployment remains at 5.6 percent and the underemployment rate – part time and other low-wage, low benefit work – was higher in June than when the recession began. The Bush administration is still on track to have the greatest sustained job loss since the 1930s.
President Bush's tax cuts have not produced adequate job growth. Job growth since last August has been paltry compared to other economic recoveries. During eight other post-WWII recoveries, the average monthly job growth rate was 0.32 percent. At 240,000 jobs per month – the average rate in 2004 before the June drop-off – President Bush's 0.19 percent average job growth rate represents a 60 percent decline from normal recoveries.
Many of the jobs in President Bush's "recovery" are low-wage, low-benefit service and retail jobs. The overall growth in jobs masks a harsher reality for families trying to maintain or build a middle class standard of living. Jobs may be up, but the quality of these jobs is low in terms of pay, benefits and the opportunity to get ahead. Seventy-five percent of the 1.4 million jobs created over the past year have been in industries that pay below average wages.
While corporate profits are reaching record highs, real wages are falling. During the period from November 2003 to March 2004 – when job growth was increasing – average hourly real wages actually fell by 1 percent. At the same time, the corporate profit rate reached record highs after taxes. In the first quarter of 2003, the latest period, for which data are available, the after-tax profit rate was an estimated record high of 17.5 percent.
Center for American Progress
President Bush's tax cuts have not produced adequate job growth. Job growth since last August has been paltry compared to other economic recoveries. During eight other post-WWII recoveries, the average monthly job growth rate was 0.32 percent. At 240,000 jobs per month – the average rate in 2004 before the June drop-off – President Bush's 0.19 percent average job growth rate represents a 60 percent decline from normal recoveries.
Many of the jobs in President Bush's "recovery" are low-wage, low-benefit service and retail jobs. The overall growth in jobs masks a harsher reality for families trying to maintain or build a middle class standard of living. Jobs may be up, but the quality of these jobs is low in terms of pay, benefits and the opportunity to get ahead. Seventy-five percent of the 1.4 million jobs created over the past year have been in industries that pay below average wages.
While corporate profits are reaching record highs, real wages are falling. During the period from November 2003 to March 2004 – when job growth was increasing – average hourly real wages actually fell by 1 percent. At the same time, the corporate profit rate reached record highs after taxes. In the first quarter of 2003, the latest period, for which data are available, the after-tax profit rate was an estimated record high of 17.5 percent.
Center for American Progress
