Certainly, 9 percent unemployment and very slow growth is not a good situation.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It takes about two and a half percent growth just to keep unemployment stable.
The unemployment rate has effectively not gone down from where it was at the peak of the recession. The only reason it's gone technically from 10 percent to 8 percent is so many people are discouraged and have quit work.
If unemployment could be brought down to say 2 percent at the cost of an assured steady rate of inflation of 10 percent per year, or even 20 percent, this would be a good bargain.
In my view, if you have one in 10 unemployed - something is wrong with the economy whether you call it recession or not.
The unemployment rate is not real.
I think no one has ever been re-elected with unemployment over 7.6 percent.
Currently a level of unemployment of 7 percent or more seems to be required to keep inflation from accelerating, a level quite unacceptable as a permanent situation.
Job growth well in excess of population increase would be a very good thing if it were only that easy.
Well, our economy is very strong and growing. We have created 5.4 million new jobs in the last 3 years. Our unemployment rate is better than the average unemployment rate of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
This majority is working for America, and one of those ways is we have tremendously low unemployment. This economy has created millions of new jobs, and we are expecting growth this first quarter of somewhere higher than 4 percent.