Why Jobs Must Be Our Goal Now, Not Deficit Reduction

robertreich.org — The news today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is that the U.S. job market is treading water. The number of new jobs created in December (155,000), and percent unemployment (7.8), were the same as the revised numbers for November. Also, about the same number of people are looking for work (12.2 million), with additional millions too discouraged even to look. Put simply, we’re a very long way from the job growth we need to get out of the gravitational pull of the Great Recession. That would be at least 300,000 new jobs per month. All of which means job growth and wage growth should be the central focus of economic policy, not deficit reduction.

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