Jobs/Economy
All fast facts for Jobs & Economy are from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and Recovery.gov. They do not represent all of their reports on this subject. Some simply provide historical perspective. Occasionally minor word adjustments may have been made for clarity or to reflect the updated nature of the statement. As always, verify and view statements in their full context as often as possible.
Changes in tax or spending policy that would produce the largest increases in employment per dollar of budgetary cost include:
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Other job boosting policies could:
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| The economic effects of a tax cut, however, depend on the public’s perception of its likely duration. A personal tax cut that is intended to be longer-lived may nonetheless be perceived as temporary, dampening some of its stimulative effect. Similarly, a business tax cut that is intended to provide only a temporary opportunity for investment may in fact be seen by firms as permanent and so lose some of its stimulative power. Click here to verify at Page ix | |
| Among people who were displaced from their job in 2003 – when the unemployment rate peaked at 6 percent – and were reemployed by January 2006, CBO found that 10 percent were reemployed in a week. Another 25 percent found a job within a month. In March of 2010, 44 percent of unemployed people (a subject of the entire labor force) had been jobless for 27 weeks or longer. Click here to verify at Page 2 | |
| Slack demand for goods and services (that is, slack aggregate demand) is the primary reason for the persistently high levels of unemployment and long-term unemployment observed today, in CBO’s judgment. However, when aggregate demand ultimately picks up, as it eventually will, so-called structural factors—specifically, employer-employee mismatches, the erosion of skills, and stigma—may continue to keep unemployment and long-term unemployment higher than normal. Click here to verify | |