Unemployment Steady but Not Falling

By Robert Davis
Nov 9 2010

The US unemployment figures, released this morning, are not in line with what lawmakers are hoping to see at this late stage in the economic recovery.

Several US states continue to post double-digit unemployment figures, with California, Nevada and Michigan leading the way. However, the federal government considers the fact that the figures have stayed flat to be good news.

With unemployment resting at a certain level, the number of new jobless claims has dipped by a significant amount. This is where the White House has seen the good news, despite the fact that the economy of the US continues to struggle through the recovery efforts.

With the Federal Reserve taking steps to spur the economic outlook, the White House as well as Congress is hopeful that things will improve in the coming year. Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernake announced a plan to buy $600 billion in bonds to give the economy a much-needed boost.

For many lawmakers it is troubling that the stimulus money that was passed out to the states with the worst unemployment numbers is not doing its job. Nevada for instance received huge sums of stimulus money to create construction jobs in the largest cities. However, many of the projects that were slated for the stimulus money have not even begun.

The same is true in Michigan where manufacturing has come to a halt in most of the automotive plants. Stimulus funds were sent out to keep the plants functioning but they are still shuttered to this day.