Jobless Recovery?
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A few years ago, it was a favorite Democratic theme — the socalled “jobless recovery.” Senator Clinton spoke about it on the Senate floor in October of 2002. Senator Schumer wrote in the New York Times that “To call this a ‘jobless recovery’ is inaccurate: lots of new jobs are being created, just not here in the United States.”
The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer ran a piece in September of 2003 quoting Senator Edwards, then as now running for president, saying, of President Bush, “The only Spanish he speaks when it comes to jobs is hasta la vista.” Senator Kerry piped up to say, “I think the only jobs created in the United States of America by George Bush are the nine of us running for President of the United States.” And the NewsHour reporter intoned, “a harsh fact remains: Since President Bush took office, the nation has lost some 2.7 million jobs. And a vast majority of those jobs may be permanently lost.”
Fast forward to Friday’s monthly report from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which found that 180,000 jobs had been created in America in March, bringing the total number gained since August 2003 to more than 7.8 million. The report found the unemployment rate at a low 4.4%. The White House noted that the economy has now added jobs for 43 straight months, that real wages rose 1.8% over the past 12 months through February, and that the economy has now experienced five years of uninterrupted growth.
We agree with the wisdom that entrepreneurs, not politicians, create jobs, but it’s only fair to give the Bush tax cuts some of the credit for the sustained growth. With such news on the domestic front, it is no wonder that Speaker Pelosi is jetting off to Damascus and a Democratic presidential candidate, Bill Richardson, is headed for North Korea. This sort of economic good news doesn’t usually last forever, and things could take a turn for the worse, especially if the Democratic Congress decides to raise taxes. But for now, those seeking to attack President Bush’s economic record don’t have much to work with in the way of facts.
