WASHINGTON Hudson Institute Chief Economist Tim Kane is available to comment on U.S. employment numbers and his recent analysis of unemployment in the swing states.
Kane says:
"If voters in the swing states ask themselves if they are better off than they were four years ago, the answer will be no. Comparing official data in 2008 to September 2012 (the latest data available), we see the unemployment rate has increased in every one of the nine most hotly contested swing states. Ohio saw its unemployment rate rise by half a percentage point from 6.5% in 2008 to 7.0% today, but Nevada suffered more than anywhere with its level rising from 7.0% in 2008 to 11.8% today.
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2008 |
2012 (Sept.) |
Change |
|
|
NEVADA |
7.0 |
11.8 |
+4.8 |
|
COLORADO |
4.8 |
8.0 |
+3.2 |
|
PENNSYLVANIA |
5.4 |
8.2 |
+2.8 |
|
WISCONSIN |
4.8 |
7.3 |
+2.5 |
|
FLORIDA |
6.3 |
8.7 |
+2.4 |
|
VIRGINIA |
4.0 |
5.9 |
+1.9 |
|
MICHIGAN |
8.3 |
9.8 |
+1.5 |
|
IOWA |
4.0 |
5.2 |
+1.2 |
|
OHIO |
6.5 |
7.0 |
+0.5 |
"If President Obama loses the election next Tuesday, he has nothing but his economic policies to blame. In early 2009, Obama's top economists promised that the unemployment would come down nationally to 5.5 percent by the end of his first term if Congress would enact the stimulus package. Despite Republican warnings, a hyper-partisan vote in Congress with Democratic majorities in both chambers did pass the stimulus. The result has been a jobless recovery, with unemployment rates two and a half full points higher than promised, which doesn't include the millions of discouraged Americans who have stopped looking for jobs and so are not officially counted as unemployed."
Tim Kane often provides analysis on major television networks and radio outlets. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy with a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, San Diego. He is co-authoring a book (with Glenn Hubbard) entitled, Balance: Why Great Powers Lose It and How America Can Regain It, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster in early 2013.
Click here to download a PDF of Kane's latest Economic Policy Studies Briefing Paper, entitled The Collapse of Startups in Job Creation. http://www.hudson.org
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For more information, please contact James Bologna: 202-974-6456, jbologna@hudson.org.