Well, let’s give two cheers for the latest jobs report. With 236,000 private sector jobs added last month, the benchmark unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest level of the Obama presidency. Given all the media excitement over this modest improvement (we should be adding 400,000 jobs by now), something north of 7.5 percent must be the new normal.
The administration doesn’t want you to remember that a rate of 5.5 percent during the Bush years was considered to be a Depression-era level of joblessness. And if you add in all the people who’ve quit looking for work or who have had to settle for part-time work, the actual jobless rate is something north of 14 percent–not exactly sizzling. And let’s not forget that 89 million Americans are out of the workforce completely, meaning that millions fewer people are working today than when Mr. Obama took office.
Make that one cheer.
About Stan Guthrie
Stan Guthrie is an editor at large for Christianity Today magazine and for the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. His latest book is God's Story in 66 Verses. He also is author of All that Jesus Asks: How His Questions Can Teach and Transform Us, Missions in the Third Millennium: 21 Key Trends for the 21st Century, and A Concise Guide to Bible Prophecy. He is co-author of The Sacrament of Evangelism. Besides authoring, writing, and editing books, Stan is a literary agent, bringing together good authors, good books, and good publishers.
Stan writes the monthly Priorities colum for BreakPoint.org. He has appeared on National Public Radio's Tell Me More, WGN's Milt Rosenberg program, and many Christian shows, including The Eric Metaxas Show and Moody Radio's New Day Florida. A licensed minister and an inspirational speaker, he served as moderator for the Christian Book Expo panel discussion, Does the God of Christianity Exist, and What Difference Does It Make?
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