The AFT issued this statement:
Statement by AFT President Randi Weingarten on Jobs Report
WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the U.S. jobs report showed the loss of more than half a million additional public sector layoffs amid a rebound in private sector jobs:
“The jobs report out today confirms what we already know: The CARES Act is working, but if we don’t act now on a new round of stimulus for states, communities and schools, then millions more Americans will be out of work.
“An additional 585,000 public sector jobs were lost, following a drop of 963,000 in April. That includes another 375,000 educators, for a total of 750,000 so far during the COVID-19 pandemic, double the carnage of the Great Recession.
“The numbers are an argument for state and local aid, not against it. Business wants to come back, but we can’t halt stimulus now, particularly for states and schools, otherwise we’ll be confronting a fresh slump that will wreak havoc for years.
“We are in the midst of three crises: a pandemic, an economic crisis and a crisis of systemic racism. The news that private sector jobs grew was a step in the right direction, but these crises are far from over.
“The president’s comments today about George Floyd were tone-deaf. Floyd was murdered by police, and racial inequalities remain unaddressed. The report showed that Black unemployment rose, as African Americans continue to feel the disproportionate effects of the downturn.
“There are no magic fixes for this economy—only a path to recovery if we keep up the stimulus and investments to fund, rather than forfeit, the future. We urgently need the federal funding included in the HEROES Act that helps states, cities, towns and schools weather this rolling storm. If we fail to act, essential services will be gutted, schools won’t be able to reopen and public employees will stay laid off.”
The Idiot’s remarks were not “tone-deaf.” They were intentional daggers aimed at the hearts of George Floyd’s family and everyone who has been devastated by the many atrocities this nation has had to endure, right down to the 75 year old gentleman who had his skull split open by the Buffalo police. It was a dog whistle blown into a megaphone and amplified by the biggest speaker in the world. To call it “tone deaf” was, to put it as charitably as I can, was tone deaf.
Most private-sector job growth is non-union jobs that pay poverty wages and do not come with medical care like the fast-food industry, regular restaurants, or retail stores like Wal-Mart.
But most of the public-sector jobs (many linked to labor unions), the ones under attack by Trump (for instance, his refusal to keep the Post Office funded), the Waltons, and ALEC, et al., pay livable wages that often includes medical coverage.
If only someone could have foreseen that shutting down the economy for months would have a terrible impact on the lives of real people.
The economy was not shut down. Sections of the economy were forced to close but not every business. The economy is like a big balloon and that ballon lost about 20% of its hot air between March and June due to the pandemic, but that balloon still had 80% of its hot air so the balloon did not empty out and it was still floating just not as high as it was before COVID-19.
Some businesses were forced to close like bars, restaurants, beauty salons, barbers, theme parks, but many businesses did not close. For instance, Costco reported earning an additional $1.5 billion in March. The extra business probably required Costco to hire more people. Amazon, FedEx, et al probably hired more drivers since more people were buying online and having their orders delivered to their houses.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/23/841876464/26-million-jobs-lost-in-just-5-weeks
This Statista’s chart (next link) shows jobs dropped from 132.16 million in August 2019 to 113.66 million by April 2020. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the loss of 18.5 million jobs from 132.16 is a 14% drop.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/04/the-may-unemployment-rate-is-expected-to-be-near-20percent-as-millions-more-lost-jobs.html
The economy took a serious hit, but it didn’t come to a complete stop.
40 million jobs have been lost. Some may have been regained. The total decrease is much bigger than 19 million, all due respect to statistics.com. All of these numbers are u precedented and have disastrous implications. The big question is how disastrous.
We do know that lost jobs cause other jobs to be lost because the money one family spends that it earned often supports other jobs.
I think I read once, how many jobs can be lost later from other jobs being lost first but do not remember the formula.
We did foresee this. But we chose not to have universal health care, we chose not to have a secure, guaranteed public pension program, we chose not to address fair and equitable housing, we chose not to have accessible public transportation, we chose not to have college students accumulate oppressive debt, we chose not professionalize police forces focused on community engagement, we chose not to have a fair, easily accessible unemployment compensation system. All of which was easily foreseen if we had the political will to do something before it became a crisis.