Jobs/Economy
All fast facts for Jobs & Economy are from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). 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.
| Although CBO has examined data on [economic] output and employment during the period since American Reinvestment and Recovery Act’s (ARRA’s, a.k.a. stimulus) enactment, those data are not as helpful in determining ARRA’s economic effects as might be supposed because isolating the effects would require knowing what path the economy would have taken in the absence of the law. Because that path cannot be observed, the new data add only limited information about ARRA’s impact. Click here to verify at Page 2 | |
| The total number of jobs increased at an average monthly rate of about 180,000 in the first four months of 2011, more than double the average pace in 2010; but from May through October, the number of jobs increased at an average monthly rate of only about 90,000. Consequently, the unemployment rate has fallen by only a small amount. It climbed to 10.1 percent of the labor force in October 2009, approaching the 10.8 percent reached in November and December 1982 (which was the highest rate since 1948, when comparable data first became available). Click here to verify at Page 6 | |
| The federal government, through laws and regulations, sometimes imposes requirements—known as federal mandates—on state, local, and tribal governments and entities in the private sector in order to achieve national goals. In 1995, lawmakers enacted the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) in part to ensure that, during the legislative process, the Congress receives information about proposed federal mandates and their costs before enacting a piece of legislation. Click here to verify | |
| A tax cut provides short-term fiscal stimulus when it increases consumption or investment demand. Consumption by households is generally stimulated when either after-tax income or lifetime wealth rises because of a reduction in taxes. Investment by businesses is typically stimulated when a tax cut boosts the after-tax return on capital sufficiently to make it profitable to invest more. Verify at Page viii | |
| The number of unemployed workers per job opening averaged about 4 ½ throughout the first half of 2011, down from an average of slightly over 6 in 2009 but still much higher than it was before the recession. In addition, the number of people who are employed part time but want full-time work averaged about 8.5 million in the first half of 2011, slightly below the number in the previous two years but still nearly double the prerecession figure. Click here to verify at Page 48 | |