March 28, 2024

Long-Term Joblessness Grows Despite More Jobs

Posted by Congressman Steny Hoyer
Pax II

Congressman Steny H. Hoyer

Congressman Steny H. Hoyer

The March report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which shows that our economy added 192,000 private sector jobs in March, ought to be a further reminder of Congress’s responsibility to pursue job creation legislation.  While we have continued to see job growth month after month since 2010, we are not adding jobs fast enough to put back to work all those who are still struggling to find jobs, including many long-term unemployed.

The Republican budget coming to the Floor next week would severely erode our investments in education, infrastructure, and innovation and would make it difficult for businesses to bring jobs back and create new ones.  Their budget is the wrong approach, and instead Congress ought to be focused on helping unleash the job-creating potential of our private sector.

That’s what the Make It In America plan for jobs and competitiveness would do.

Enacting Make It In America legislation would provide businesses with tools and incentives to bring more jobs back from overseas and increase their exports, and it would invest in rebuilding critical infrastructure and training a twenty-first century workforce to help American manufacturers innovate and compete.

First on Congress’s agenda must be a restoration of emergency unemployment insurance to the 2.8 million long-term unemployed Americans who have had their access cut off even while they still search for jobs.  I am encouraged that the Senate appears poised to pass a bipartisan bill to that effect next week, and I hope the House will follow suit.  At the same time, we ought to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour so that America’s lowest-paid workers can still afford the opportunities that serve as ladders to the middle class.

I urge House Republicans to work with Democrats to achieve the goals of Make It In America so we can help our private sector create the jobs we need to put every American job-seeker back to work.

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