GOP ‘austerity’ measures put the brakes on job recovery

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Steve Benen breaks down the May jobs report. Political Animal – Jobs landscape deteriorates, unemployment up:

In the first four months of 2010, we saw steady and encouraging growth in the job market, and optimism was high. Then May came and the job market faltered badly. This year is starting to look exactly the same — four months of increasingly strong numbers, followed by a punch to the gut in May.

The Labor Department reported on Friday that the United States added 54,000 nonfarm payroll jobs last month, following an increase of 232,000 jobs in April. The unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent from 9.0 percent in April.

While any job gains at all are welcome, the pace of job growth thus far has been too slow to reverse much of the damage wrought by the Great Recession, which has left more than 13 million unemployed workers in its wake. For the last few months economists had been predicting that the economy was finally gathering steam and that a sharper bounce-back was imminent, only to be disappointed again and again.

The lackluster employment figures for May, as in months past, are largely attributed to temporary factors — like the automotive supply chain disruption caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and the severe tornadoes that shuttered businesses in the Midwest.

Economists are hopeful that as these troubles pass, a robust recovery will finally burrow out from beneath the rubble. 

In keeping with the recent trend, it’s the public sector that’s dragging down the larger total. In all, 83,000 private sector jobs were created in May, while 29,000 jobs were lost in the public sector at the same time, thanks to budget cuts at the state and local level.

Any sane person should look at these numbers and conclude that the economy desperately needs a boost. Instead, the only topic of discussion allowed in Washington is about debt reduction — which takes money out of the economy and makes unemployment worse.

Also discouraging, the totals from March and April were also revised downwards, adding a little insult to injury.

Steve Benen continues. Political Animal – Private-sector jobs also show struggling economy:

Overall, the U.S. economy added an anemic 54,000 jobs in May, but as has been the case for quite a while, there was a major gap between the public and private sectors. Businesses added 83,000 jobs in May, while 29,000 jobs were lost in the public sector at the same time, thanks to budget cuts at the state and local level.

It’s the weakest jobs report in nearly a year, and further evidence that the economy is in desperate need of a boost. It can’t get that boost, of course, because congressional Republicans refuse to consider anything other than austerity measures, which make unemployment worse.

And with that, here’s a different homemade chart, showing monthly job losses/gains in the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.

What are the conclusions Benen draws from this? Political Animal – The wake-up call:

It’s a nice little scam Republicans have put together: when more jobs are being created, it’s proof they’re right; when fewer jobs are being created, it’s proof Obama’s wrong. Heads they win; tails Dems lose.

For the record, Republicans have nothing to whine about — the economy is advancing exactly as they want it to. The private sector is being left to its own devices; the public sector is shedding jobs quickly; and the only permitted topic of conversation is about debt-reduction. This is the script the GOP wrote; the party has nothing to complain about when it’s followed to the letter.

The rest of us, however, have plenty of complain about. As Republicans dominate the agenda, and Congress tackles abortion bills and austerity measures, the economy is faltering badly.

Indeed, we’re already seeing the results of austerity — state and local governments are being forced to cut spending, and as a result, tens of thousands of public-sector workers are being forced from their jobs. This, in a nutshell, is the agenda Republicans are desperate to bring to the federal level.

In other words, the GOP has a plan to make matters much worse.

* * *

The stimulus made the jobs landscape better, and now that the Recovery Act has largely run its course, the job market is deteriorating.

The dominant theory on Capitol Hill is that everything will get magically better just as soon as we take money out of the economy, scrap public investments, focus on inflation that doesn’t exist, and prioritize the debt over the economy.

It didn’t work for Hoover, but congressional Republicans are slow learners.

Honestly, it’s like having a debate about the economy in a Lewis Carroll novel.

And the Mad Hatter's Tea Party is about to blow up the world's financial system and economy once again over the federal debt ceiling. When will Americans learn?