Autumn of Despair for the Jobless Ushered in by Obama Policies

(ROUND ROCK, TX) – A stunning 368,000 Americans gave up hope of finding a job in August, leaving the smallest percentage of Americans in the workforce since 1981, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics August jobs report released today. 

“The economic policies of the last three-and-a-half years have wrought irreparable damage to the morale of the jobless,” says House Republican Conference Secretary John Carter (TX-31).  “People are just giving up and getting out of the workforce.  President Obama continues to actively block new jobs through regulations, executive orders, higher employer costs, and massive federal deficits.  People aren’t seeing their job chances getting any better; they see them only going further downhill.”   

The official unemployment rate was lowered from 8.3% to 8.1% in today’s reportbased entirely on workers leaving the workforce in mass.   Only 96,000 jobs were created in August, far below the replacement rate.   Had the workforce participation rate remained the same as when Obama took office in 2009, the current unemployment rate would be 11.2%.  August became the 43^rd consecutive month in which the unemployment rate was above 8%.  When including part-time workers seeking full-time jobs, the jobless rate is at 14.7%.

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