Facts About Jobs

• There aren't enough jobs to go around: According to the U.S. Labor Department, one out of four workers are either unemployed, involuntarily working part-time, or working full-time at poverty wages.
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• The unemployment rate is high: Official unemployment is not the real one. When you add in those who are not counted because they've given up looking as well as those who are underemployed, the real figure is almost double than the official one. For African Americans and Latinos, the unemployment rate is even higher.
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• U.S. workers have among the lowest wages in the industrialized world: We earn less than Scandinavian, Western European, and many Asian workers. And the level of wage inequality in this country is closer to that of Tanzania than it is to Europe.
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• Wages are falling: Our real wages have been falling since 1973, despite huge increases in corporate profits and in productivity. Average hourly earnings are now about 20 percent lower than they were in 1972.
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• Joblessness costs our nation a lot of money: Every one percent rise in unemployment would increase the federal deficit by $39 billion and over five years, each one percent rise in unemployment would add a whopping $323 billion to the deficit. Plus, the welfare costs we pay because of unemployment (including welfare to corporations, supposedly to encourage job creation) costs us an additional $242 billion.
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• A guaranteed job is a great deal for the taxpayer: With the money we save in welfare costs, we could create a lot of jobs, about 10 million of them. And those are living wage jobs, ones that pay at least $24,000 a year ($10 an hour plus benefits).
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• Guaranteed Jobs = Higher Wages: So long as millions are unemployed, wages will remain depressed, because employers can always play on the unemployed desperation. Only by finally eliminating unemployment can be guaranteed decent wages for everyone.