10/8/10

Killing Jobs for Political Sport

INSTITUTE INDEX - Killing jobs for political sport

Date that Republicans used Senate rules to block an extension of the TANF Emergency Fund that directly subsidized jobs for the unemployed in government, nonprofits and small businesses: 9/28/2010

Date that the program expired: 9/30/2010

Amount of money the program had given states for job creation: $1 billion

Number of jobs the program created nationwide for unemployed parents and youth: nearly 250,000

Number of jobs the program created in the South*: 86,827

Level to which the unemployment rate in rural Perry County, Tenn. soared to after a local auto parts plant closed: 27 percent

Number of jobs that the emergency program funded in Perry County as part of a broader job-creation initiative: 220

Amount by which the initiative reduced Perry County's unemployment rate: 1/3

Number of employees hired by private companies in Mississippi through an innovative program funded by the emergency program: nearly 3,200

Unemployment rate nationally: 9.6 percent

Unemployment rate across the South: 9.3 percent

Unemployment rate in Wyoming, the home state of Republican Sen. Mike Enzi who led the effort to kill the emergency fund: 6.8 percent

Date on which Enzi called the fund an "important social safety net program": 9/28/2010

Date on which he said it was "not sound welfare policy": 9/29/2010

Number of consecutive months for which the national unemployment rate has topped 9 percent: 15

Number of Americans who are officially unemployed: about 15 million

Number of Americans working part-time but seeking full-time work: almost 9 million

Percent of the unemployed who've been out of work for more than six months: 42

Percent that have been jobless for more than six months: 23

* Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

(To comment on this story, click here.) article via chris@southernstudies.org



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