The long economic slog continues

If this is what recovery looks like, we should stop calling it a recovery.

The good news, as The New York Times reports, is that economy created 103,000 jobs in December; the bad news is that the number is far below what will be needed just to start chipping away at the jobs lost during this long and painful recession. And that does not take into account the reality that the economy needs to create several hundred thousand jobs monthly just to keep up with population growth.

The real problem in the recession, however, is not just unemployment, but long-term unemployment — the folks who not only have lost their jobs but remain out of work for long stretches.

The percentage of the unemployed who have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer edged up last month to 44.3 percent, about the same level as a year ago. Other indicators, such as the length of the average work week, remained stagnant.

All told, one in six Americans is either unemployed (either actively seeking jobs or having given up)  under-employed. The brutal reality is everyone knows someone who is out of work, whether it is a former co-worker, a friend, a neighbor or a relative, and most of us know many.

And yet, we are faced with the prospect of a Republican Congress promising to grind government to a halt, ensuring that the only entity with the economic muscle to pump money into the economy — through public works jobs, unemployment insurance, aid to states to keep state and local workers employed — will remain on the sidelines.

President Obama deserves a tremendous amount of blame for this, of course, because of his reluctance to be bold and use the bully pulpit. He allowed the Republicans to gut his stimulus program, back pedaled on bailing out homeowners and has had a surprisingly difficult time explaining himself, given that his greatest strength as a campaigner was his ability to speak to voters.

The economic problems will dog us, with damaging effects throughout different sectors of the economy and the society, without much in the way of a safety net to catch us before we come crashing down. We will be forced to rely on soup kitchens and food pantries, SRO hotels and the like — or many of us will.

We may not end up wearing a barrel or riding the rails to chase migrant work, but we do face a 21st-Century version of these cliches.

• Send me an e-mail.
• Read poetry at The Subterranean.
• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet