Friday, September 16, 2011

Austerity Economics Pushes PA Unemployment Up To 8.2%

Since May 2011, the Pennsylvania unemployment rate that had been heading down for 16 months started to head up.  In August it jumped to 8.2%.

The Pennsylvania economy that was a national leader in job creation from January 2010 to April 2011 is no longer doing better than the nation.  State unemployment since May, 2011 has risen from 7.4% to now 8.2%.

Austerity economics is "working" in Pennsylvania.  Look at just education budget policy.

Today the Allentown Morning call reported that the state lost 14,000 school jobs this summer due to state budget cuts. 

Everyone of those 14,000 destroyed education jobs led to the loss of at least another one-half job.  Just the education cuts alone destroyed 21,000 jobs.  That is getting close to some estimates of all the direct jobs created by the Marcellus boom.

According to the Allentown Morning Call, a survey of 294 school districts documented this summer the average job loss per district of 28.5.  Forty-four per cent of the districts also reported that they had eliminated electives; 35% ended tutoring; 25% cut summer school; 41% delayed buying textbooks; and 58% did not make technology improvements.

Slashing education is a sure way to hurt the economy in the short-run and long-run.  Just look at what's happened since May and what was happening before May.

2 comments:

  1. What was Pennsylvania job growth while you were Secretary of DEP?

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  2. Nate:

    Is that the best you can do to defend your beloved inflexible ideology? I am disappointed.

    I became Secretary of DEP on September 2nd, 2008 or 9 months after the recession began in December 2007 and 13 days before the horrendous bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008 put the world into a credit crisis and on the road to depression. USA 4th quarter GDP declined nearly 8% in 2008. Look it up. The nation was losing 500,000 to 750,000 jobs per month from October 2008 to January 2009. USA GDP declined 6% in first quarter of 2009. By third quarter GDP was growing. By January 2010 job loss had stopped and job growth began. From January 2010 to april 2011 PA unemployment rate declined from 8.8% to 7.4%. From may 2011 to august 2011, PA unemployment has risen from 7.4% to now a sickening 8.2%.

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