Unemployment and the Economy

In Brief

In December 2007, the United States entered into a recession that has been called "one of the longest downturns since the Great Depression of the 1930s." While various factors have contributed, many attribute the housing bubble burst to be the primary catalyst, which caused sub-prime lending and loan losses among some of the largest investment and commercial banks in the country.

One result of the recession is rising unemployment. In October 2009, the unemployment rate reached double digits for the first time in 26 years at 10.2 percent. The unemployment rate was reported as 9.6 percent in September 2010, or 14.8 million unemployed workers. Between December 2007 and July 2010, 8 million Americans have lost their jobs. As of July 2010, 7.9 million jobs have been killed off, with an increasing likeliness that many won't be returning.

The Obama Administration is working to revive the economy through numerous acts and initiatives. President Obama's goals when it comes to unemployment and the economy are to create jobs, keep Americans in their homes and bring stability to financial markets. The most popular act is the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the Stimulus Package, which Congress approved on February 11, 2009. The $787 billion bill created approximately three million jobs. Other acts to boost the economy include a $15 billion Small Business Bill, $2.2 billion Helping Families Save Their Homes Act and Making Home Affordable refinancing plan. The Labor Department also launched a new jobs website, myskillsmyfuture.org to help match people with an available job or the additional skills training to get one.




To learn more about unemployment and the recession, read through the following Web resources:

• The White House Issues: Economy
  A basic overview of acts, bills and initiatives the Obama Administration is working on to stimulate the economy.
  
  
• The Economic Census
  Look at national trends and statistics from every five years, as well as monthly and quarterly economic indicators.
  
  
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
  Read up on the latest numbers and facts through reports and news releases straight from the source. The site also features resources for business leaders, consumers, jobseekers, investors, students and more. View the national unemployment rate month-to-month, as well as state and local unemployment rates.
  
  
• The Layoff Kings: The 25 Companies Responsible for 700,000 Lost Jobs
  Read all about the top companies that lost the most jobs on the AOL Money and Finance site, DailyFinance.com. The list includes General Motors, Citigroup and Hewlett-Packard.
  
  
• MSNBC: Unemployment Rate
  Go through the interactive site's map of unemployment rates state-by-state and month-to-month starting in September 2007. You can also view data on jobs by sector.
  
  
• The Huffington Post Topic: Unemployment
  
  
• Fox Business Topic: Unemployment
  
  
• Newser Topic: Unemployment
  
  
• Yahoo! News Topic: Economy
  
  
• New York Times News Topic: Unemployment
  
  
• BusinessWeek News Topic: Economy
  
  
• The Washington Post News Topic: Economy
  
  
• U.S. News & World Report News Topic: Unemployment
  
  

• Visit voting records resources.

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