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AFL-CIO Now Blog News
by Tula Connell, Sep 11, 2008
The dramatic worsening of the nation’s unemployment rate from 5.7 percent in July to 6.1 percent in August isn’t the only recent economic indicator starkly contradicting John McCain’s repeated statements that the “fundamentals of the economy are strong.”
Take a look at this data.
With millions of America’s workers out of a job, unemployment rose among almost all demographic groups, hurting women the worst. Black women saw their unemployment rate worsen by 1.6 percentage points to 9.1 percent. The unemployment rate for African Americans overall rose to 10.6 percent and that of Hispanics to 8 percent.
More than 1.4 million of America’s workers are employed in part-time positions for economic reasons, not by choice.
An additional 109,000 individuals hold multiple jobs.
Incomes are declining across the board—unless you’re extremely wealthy or work in a professional job, like doctor or lawyer. Every other group, including those with college and doctorate degrees, saw income declines. The inflation-adjusted median salary for a person with a bachelor’s degree fell about 3 percent, adjusted for inflation, to $47,240 last year from 2000. Median master’s-degree salaries fell about 4 percent, to $56,707. Salaries for high school graduates fell about 3 percent to $28,290. As the Wall Street Journal puts it:
The recent data are the latest reminder of how college degrees, long seen as a path to the middle class, no longer guarantee fatter paychecks every year.
One in three homeowners who purchased homes since 2003 now owe more than what the property is worth, according to Zillow.com, an Internet service that values more than 80 million homes. The numbers are even more dismal for those who bought in 2006, with 45 percent now experiencing negative home equity.
Inflation-adjusted median household income has declined by $1,175 since 2000. Meanwhile, prices for many goods are rising rapidly, according to Elizabeth Warren, a Leo Gottlieb professor of law at Harvard Law School. Testifying before a Senate committee recently, Warren put it this way:
Seven years of flat or declining wages, seven years of increasing costs and seven year of mounting debts have placed unprecedented stress on the ordinary families. By every critical financial measure, these families are losing ground. Without changes in critical economic policies, the strong middle class that has been the backbone of the American economy and the American democracy is in jeopardy.
With seven years of failed economic policies under the Bush administration resulting in the nation’s current disaster, no wonder McCain—whose economic proposals would replicate those of Bush—prefers talking about lipstick
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