Sen. Russ Feingold issued a statement on the latest jobs report issued by the Department of Labor, which showed the nation lost 36,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate remained stuck at 9.7%.
“The February jobs report shows we still have a long way to go until we see a full recovery in employment and it cannot come fast enough for Wisconsin families who are struggling with unemployment and financial concerns. The Senate has taken important steps to help get more Americans back to work, including passing a payroll tax break to encourage hiring, along the lines of the one I proposed. I am pleased that yesterday, the House passed a bill including this tax break for businesses, as well. But we must remain focused on job creation and bringing down the deficit because taxpayers can’t afford more wasteful spending. Putting Wisconsinites back to work is a top priority and I will continue to push for more victories on my E4 Initiative aimed at fueling job creation and economic development for Wisconsin.”
While the jobs report certainly wasn’t great news, investors took the numbers as good news, as they had braced for even more discouraging numbers. The unemployment rate had been projected to rise to 9.8% with a loss of 67,000 nonfarm jobs.
I was surprised that so few Republicans voted for the jobs tax credit. They love to espouse tax reductions to accomplish economic growth, they love to say they support small business because small busness creates all of the jobs, it is an election year and they can’t totally run an anti-Obama campaign (at least you’d think the incumbents can’t) and they probably are right when they say it won’t do much to improve employment. Employers who need to hire will hire and take advantage of the tax breaks. Those that don’t need to hire will hardly hire for the few thousand dollars involved.
In real life, the only way government can directly affect employment is to increase purchasing goods and services in the private sector, or directly hiring employees.