Detroit's bankruptcy filing spotlights the power of public sector unions to bully elected officials into voting for lavish retiree pension plans that saddle cities with crushing financial debt. While Detroit has been the center of media attention, the city's problems are hardly unique.
In a recent report, economists from Rochester University and Stanford estimated that unfunded pension liabilities of cities and state governments are approaching $3 trillion nationwide. With the economic downturn, more cities and states are hiking taxes in a desperate attempt to play catch-up.
In what has become an all too familiar scenario, public sector unions in the country have browbeat and threatened strikes unless city leaders rubber-stamp retiree pension and health benefit plans that no private business could afford. Elected officials are often beholden to the unions because they supply bushels of cash and thousands of foot soldiers for their political campaigns.
That certainly was the case in Detroit, a city dogged by a corrupt political culture controlled by Democrat Party chieftains and greedy unions, most notoriously the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (SFSCME).
Even before the recession, money problems stalked Detroit. The city was unable to dig itself out of its financial hole as thousands fled the inner city to escape soaring crime and spiraling taxes. The tax base eroded as the population dwindled from 1.8 million in 1950 to its current 701,475.
City tax revenues shriveled, shrinking 30 percent in the last decade. Property taxes have dipped 20 percent since 2008. As a result, 99,000 housing units stand vacant in the city. About 40 percent of the streetlights don't work. Two-thirds of city parks are closed. Detroit was forced to shutter half of its 142 schools two years ago to ease a $327 million deficit.
Last year, Detroit had the highest rate of violent crime of any city with a population of 200,000 or more, according to statistics contained in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports. There were 411 homicides, the most in nearly two decades. Unemployment languished at 16.3 percent.
As decay worsened, the city went on a borrowing binge. Unable to service the debt, Detroit leaders finally threw up their hands in surrender when they realized they could not pay $18 billion to more than 100,000 creditors. The lion's share of that money is owed to the city's retired union workers.
The cash needed to fund the pensions and health benefits for 30,000 retired Detroit workers amounts to $9.2 billion. City employees were guaranteed lifetime pensions and health benefits by elected officials. Workers have now discovered those are nothing but empty promises.
Michigan's state constitution protects public sector pensions, a concession wrangled by power-hungry union bosses who bulldozed voters into approving the change. However, federal bankruptcy rules allow pension changes, setting up a court battle over the issue of state's rights versus federal law.
The case will have far reaching impact on cities teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. Chicago recently was slapped with a downgrade in its credit rating because the city has a $19 billion unfunded pension liability. Los Angeles may be facing a pension liability of $30 billion, according to some estimates.
While Detroit is the largest city to file for bankruptcy, it is not the first. Seven other municipalities have been forced to seek court protection from creditors since 2010. Not surprisingly, three are California cities (San Bernardino, Mammoth Lakes and Stockton). State and city governments in California have unfunded pension liabilities totaling $329 billion.
Unless elected officials stand up to public sector unions, the problem will worsen.
Don't expect the unions to come to their senses. In Detroit, the head of the big public sector union (AFSCME) refused to concede an inch. He balked at pension concessions and accused officials of wanting city employees "to have to work until they die."
That kind of union intransigence led to the current state of affairs. The answer is to reduce city and state governments by shaving the public workforce. It will save not only pensions costs, but trim the city governments bills for health benefits and wages.
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration continues to "monitor" the situation in Detroit. The bet here is that the president will step into the bankruptcy breech to bail out the union. It would not be far fetched for the president to provide federal loan guarantees or some other scheme to fund the union pensions.
As you recall, Obama did the same thing when he allowed Detroit-headquartered General Motors to bellyflop into bankruptcy, but he confiscated taxpayer dollars to rescue union pensions and benefits. And look how well that turned out for Detroit.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Job Reports: Distortion, Deception and Duplicity
Forget the IRS scandal, the Benghazi betrayal and the NSA spy hijinks. The Obama Administration has taken government skulduggery to a new level with the promulgation of dubious data and reports that conceal the depth of the nation's economic woes.
This month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) issued figures and reports that strained the credibility of the government. In both cases, a sympathetic media failed in its obligation to do more than simply regurgitate the administration's talking-points.
Print outlets festooned their newspapers with headlines about the creation of 195,000 jobs in June when the BLS published its monthly employment figures. Hand-picked economic experts hailed the growth as affirmation of the nation's continuing rebound from the recession.
However, with just a modicum of journalistic enterprise, the media could have discovered that part time hiring was the major contributor to the increase in jobs. Temporary workers, primarily employed at contract firms, now account for 12 percent of the labor force.
The number of temps has skyrocketed by more than 50 percent since President Obama declared the recession ended four years ago. On a net basis, the nation's economy lost a stunning 326,000 full time jobs in June. Part-time workers now number a record 28 million.
Growth in part-time employment can be attributed to Obamacare, which requires firms with at least 50 workers to offer health insurance or pay a $2,000 fine per employee. Although the mandate has been delayed for a year, small businesses are holding payrolls to 49 workers or less while farming out work to part-time employees.
Included in the BLS report was the news that unemployment remained steady at 7.6 percent. However, this figure does not count so-called discouraged workers who have given up their search for a job. They are ignored in the government's official unemployment numbers spoon-fed to the lapdog media.
Excluding these "discouraged" workers makes a significant difference. As of June, that category accounted for 1 million people. It represents a 20 percent increase from last June and indicates the growing dissatisfaction of people over the lack of job opportunities.
It takes some digging, but the real unemployment figure is buried in the BLS data tables. Including the "discouraged," unemployment in June was 14.3 percent of the workforce. That represents a significant spike from May's figure of 13.8 percent.
But the award for government obfuscation goes to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The BEA released this month what it called a revised estimate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measure of the country's economic output.
Their figures showed that the economy expanded at a feeble 1.8 percent in the first quarter. The original estimate, delivered with much fanfare last month, fixed the number at 2.5 percent. Later the same month the bureau shaved it to 2.4 percent. The third revision received scant media notice.
A "revision" of this magnitude--from 2.5 percent to 1.8 percent--is unprecedented. It merited serious news coverage because it signals a frail, unhealthy economy. Normal GDP growth for the U.S. has historically been about 3.0 percent.
On the heels of these reports, the Commerce Department this month released figures showing retail spending climbed a paltry 0.4 percent in June. It is the weakest rise since January. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's economy.
What the Obama regime doesn't want you to know is this: the economic rally has fizzled. Job growth has stalled, except for part-time employment. Real unemployment remains stubbornly high. Obamacare is negatively impacting hiring and reducing the number of hours worked by employees.
Despite the ominous signs, Obama appears supremely content to allow the economic decline of the country. His answer to the crisis is to grow government assistance, adding millions of Americans on the federal rolls for food, disability, unemployment benefits, Medicaid and housing.
None of this is good news for most Americans. But they deserve an honest appraisal of the nation's economy, not some embellished version adorned with government distortion, deception and duplicity.
This month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) issued figures and reports that strained the credibility of the government. In both cases, a sympathetic media failed in its obligation to do more than simply regurgitate the administration's talking-points.
Print outlets festooned their newspapers with headlines about the creation of 195,000 jobs in June when the BLS published its monthly employment figures. Hand-picked economic experts hailed the growth as affirmation of the nation's continuing rebound from the recession.
However, with just a modicum of journalistic enterprise, the media could have discovered that part time hiring was the major contributor to the increase in jobs. Temporary workers, primarily employed at contract firms, now account for 12 percent of the labor force.
The number of temps has skyrocketed by more than 50 percent since President Obama declared the recession ended four years ago. On a net basis, the nation's economy lost a stunning 326,000 full time jobs in June. Part-time workers now number a record 28 million.
Growth in part-time employment can be attributed to Obamacare, which requires firms with at least 50 workers to offer health insurance or pay a $2,000 fine per employee. Although the mandate has been delayed for a year, small businesses are holding payrolls to 49 workers or less while farming out work to part-time employees.
Included in the BLS report was the news that unemployment remained steady at 7.6 percent. However, this figure does not count so-called discouraged workers who have given up their search for a job. They are ignored in the government's official unemployment numbers spoon-fed to the lapdog media.
Excluding these "discouraged" workers makes a significant difference. As of June, that category accounted for 1 million people. It represents a 20 percent increase from last June and indicates the growing dissatisfaction of people over the lack of job opportunities.
It takes some digging, but the real unemployment figure is buried in the BLS data tables. Including the "discouraged," unemployment in June was 14.3 percent of the workforce. That represents a significant spike from May's figure of 13.8 percent.
But the award for government obfuscation goes to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The BEA released this month what it called a revised estimate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a measure of the country's economic output.
Their figures showed that the economy expanded at a feeble 1.8 percent in the first quarter. The original estimate, delivered with much fanfare last month, fixed the number at 2.5 percent. Later the same month the bureau shaved it to 2.4 percent. The third revision received scant media notice.
A "revision" of this magnitude--from 2.5 percent to 1.8 percent--is unprecedented. It merited serious news coverage because it signals a frail, unhealthy economy. Normal GDP growth for the U.S. has historically been about 3.0 percent.
On the heels of these reports, the Commerce Department this month released figures showing retail spending climbed a paltry 0.4 percent in June. It is the weakest rise since January. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's economy.
What the Obama regime doesn't want you to know is this: the economic rally has fizzled. Job growth has stalled, except for part-time employment. Real unemployment remains stubbornly high. Obamacare is negatively impacting hiring and reducing the number of hours worked by employees.
Despite the ominous signs, Obama appears supremely content to allow the economic decline of the country. His answer to the crisis is to grow government assistance, adding millions of Americans on the federal rolls for food, disability, unemployment benefits, Medicaid and housing.
None of this is good news for most Americans. But they deserve an honest appraisal of the nation's economy, not some embellished version adorned with government distortion, deception and duplicity.
Monday, July 15, 2013
How Team Obama Tried To Corrupt Justice
Even before George Zimmerman was saddled with a murder charge, President Obama and his co-conspirators in the media summoned the dark clouds of injustice to construct a narrative to stoke racial anger in an effort to influence the outcome of the investigation.
As the whole world knows by now, a Florida jury found Zimmerman innocent of second degree murder and manslaughter in the shooting of death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, an African-American. The outcome was greeted with shrill protests by the usual suspects, including the NAACP.
The chain of events that preceded the trial are without precedent. From the time of his arrest, Zimmerman was mercilessly libeled and savagely slandered by a media intent on making the shooting all about race, despite no evidence to support their wretched thesis.
In the frenetic race to promote racial bias, the news media ignored the fact that the FBI interviewed three dozen people in the murder case. It concluded its investigation by announcing it found "no evidence" of a racial motive in the shooting.
That didn't stop the The New York Times from raising the specter of white-on-black crime. To make its case, The Times referred to Zimmerman as "white," although his mother is Hispanic.
President Obama practiced his own brand of racial prejudice with a mischievous reference designed to place the weight of his office behind the victim. He infamously proclaimed that if he had a son, he would probably look like Trayvon Martin.
Imagine if George Bush had been president and made the same analogy, but inserted the name George Zimmerman. Indignation from the media and legal community would have boiled over with frothy derision.
Obama's intent was clear. The president telegraphed prosecutors, judges, the police and potential jurors that he would be looking over their shoulders. The message was received and the criminal justice system became convinced its mission was to convict Zimmerman at all costs.
The behavior by the prosecutors in the case was so wantonly unethical that even liberals couldn't remain silent. Harvard Law professor and famed attorney Alan Dershowitz called for the prosecutors to be "disbarred" for misconduct.
In his assessment, Dershowitz was adamant that Zimmerman should not have been charged with second-degree murder because the evidence did not support it. He pointed out that the prosecutors' attempts to layer on additional charges in the trial's waning stages were "utterly irresponsible."
The incorrigible media also looked the other way while Obama's Department of Justice deployed a secretive group to Florida to help drum up support to prosecute Zimmerman. The justice agents worked in the shadows to assist in organizing rallies, marches and demonstrations for the victim.
The facts were obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request to Justice. The department supplied 347 pages of documents, which detail the extraordinary intervention in the run up to the filing of charges against Zimmerman.
The department and its Community Relations Service spent $5,230.88 of taxpayer money to sway public opinion and to build support for prosecution. To date, Attorney General Eric Holder has stonewalled requests to account for his department's shabby scheme to rig the investigation.
After the jury returned the verdict, the NAACP rushed online with a petition calling for federal prosecution of Zimmerman after the organization expressed "outrage" at the jury's decision. The group wants the Justice Department to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman.
It seems Messrs. Obama and Holder and the NAACP believe justice only works when the system does their bidding. If it doesn't, then it is a travesty. Their presumption stems from a bias against the courts, judges and police built on stereotypes held by the race-obsessed in our society.
Barrack Obama was once hailed as the president whose election signaled the end of racism. The opposite has happened as the president has informed his decision-making by judging America and Americans through a black-and-white lens.
The once anointed unifier is now the divider.
As the whole world knows by now, a Florida jury found Zimmerman innocent of second degree murder and manslaughter in the shooting of death of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, an African-American. The outcome was greeted with shrill protests by the usual suspects, including the NAACP.
The chain of events that preceded the trial are without precedent. From the time of his arrest, Zimmerman was mercilessly libeled and savagely slandered by a media intent on making the shooting all about race, despite no evidence to support their wretched thesis.
In the frenetic race to promote racial bias, the news media ignored the fact that the FBI interviewed three dozen people in the murder case. It concluded its investigation by announcing it found "no evidence" of a racial motive in the shooting.
That didn't stop the The New York Times from raising the specter of white-on-black crime. To make its case, The Times referred to Zimmerman as "white," although his mother is Hispanic.
President Obama practiced his own brand of racial prejudice with a mischievous reference designed to place the weight of his office behind the victim. He infamously proclaimed that if he had a son, he would probably look like Trayvon Martin.
Imagine if George Bush had been president and made the same analogy, but inserted the name George Zimmerman. Indignation from the media and legal community would have boiled over with frothy derision.
Obama's intent was clear. The president telegraphed prosecutors, judges, the police and potential jurors that he would be looking over their shoulders. The message was received and the criminal justice system became convinced its mission was to convict Zimmerman at all costs.
The behavior by the prosecutors in the case was so wantonly unethical that even liberals couldn't remain silent. Harvard Law professor and famed attorney Alan Dershowitz called for the prosecutors to be "disbarred" for misconduct.
In his assessment, Dershowitz was adamant that Zimmerman should not have been charged with second-degree murder because the evidence did not support it. He pointed out that the prosecutors' attempts to layer on additional charges in the trial's waning stages were "utterly irresponsible."
The incorrigible media also looked the other way while Obama's Department of Justice deployed a secretive group to Florida to help drum up support to prosecute Zimmerman. The justice agents worked in the shadows to assist in organizing rallies, marches and demonstrations for the victim.
The facts were obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request to Justice. The department supplied 347 pages of documents, which detail the extraordinary intervention in the run up to the filing of charges against Zimmerman.
The department and its Community Relations Service spent $5,230.88 of taxpayer money to sway public opinion and to build support for prosecution. To date, Attorney General Eric Holder has stonewalled requests to account for his department's shabby scheme to rig the investigation.
After the jury returned the verdict, the NAACP rushed online with a petition calling for federal prosecution of Zimmerman after the organization expressed "outrage" at the jury's decision. The group wants the Justice Department to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman.
It seems Messrs. Obama and Holder and the NAACP believe justice only works when the system does their bidding. If it doesn't, then it is a travesty. Their presumption stems from a bias against the courts, judges and police built on stereotypes held by the race-obsessed in our society.
Barrack Obama was once hailed as the president whose election signaled the end of racism. The opposite has happened as the president has informed his decision-making by judging America and Americans through a black-and-white lens.
The once anointed unifier is now the divider.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Time to Pull the Plug on Obamacare
As costs ballooned and public opinion soured, the Obama Administration has delayed the roll out of a major component of its health care plan to avert a political disaster in the mid-term elections. The decision was revealed by the Treasury Department with little fanfare to minimize news coverage.
President Obama, whose name has become synonymous with the legislation, was safely out of the country in Africa when the announcement was made. He obviously wanted to avoid the political backlash after his repeated promises to implement the health reforms on schedule.
The delay affects the law's provision mandating employers with 50 or more employees to offer health coverage or pay hefty fines of at least $2,000 per employee. It was scheduled to become effective in 2014, but has now been pushed back to January 2015 in light of withering criticism from businesses.
President Obama had insisted on the employer mandate, arguing that without it businesses would scrap health care plans, thus making a mockery of his oft repeated claim that Americans could keep their current coverage if they liked it.
In its low-key news release, the Treasury Department left intact the individual mandate, which requires most Americans to purchase health care insurance beginning in October or face steep fines to be levied by those "non-partisan" folks at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
A few Washington insiders are predicting the employer mandate may be ultimately repealed by Congress. This likely would prompt most companies to abolish their health plans and force individuals to purchase private insurance through government run exchanges.
The problem is the exchanges are a train wreck that threatens to derail the entire plan. Out of 50 states, only 17 and Washington, D.C. have been certified to create exchanges by the Health and Human Services Department (HHS). Open enrollment is less than four months away.
The exchanges are supposed to function as a single point of contact for consumers to shop and compare private insurance plans. Mushrooming cost overruns are plaguing the exchanges. HHS budgeted $2.2 billion this year for the plans. Costs are now expected to top $4.4 billion, according to the HHS.
Those bloated figures were not included in last year's revised price tag for Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the health plan will cost $1.76 trillion over the next ten years, nearly double the original forecast of $940 billion when the law was approved in 2010.
Meanwhile, the White House quietly mentioned in April that it planned to reverse $500 million in cuts to the Medicaid program scheduled to start in 2013. These reductions were to be followed by more sharp decreases in 2022, effecting millions of seniors.
All these course corrections by the administration are nothing more than political recalculations. With the mid-term elections looming next year, Democrats fear a poorly implemented health care law could become an albatross around their collective necks.
People are beginning to notice Obamacare's obvious flaws. In a recent poll, 45 percent of Americans hold a negative view of the health care package. Only 29 percent support it. This does not bode well for Democrats, especially if there are further delays and missteps.
Virginian Republican Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, offered the best remedy for Obamacare.
Reacting to the Treasury Department's announcement, Cantor remarked: "The best delay for Obamacare is a permanent one."
He's right. Now it is up to Congress to fulfill Cantor's prescription for the health care law.
President Obama, whose name has become synonymous with the legislation, was safely out of the country in Africa when the announcement was made. He obviously wanted to avoid the political backlash after his repeated promises to implement the health reforms on schedule.
The delay affects the law's provision mandating employers with 50 or more employees to offer health coverage or pay hefty fines of at least $2,000 per employee. It was scheduled to become effective in 2014, but has now been pushed back to January 2015 in light of withering criticism from businesses.
President Obama had insisted on the employer mandate, arguing that without it businesses would scrap health care plans, thus making a mockery of his oft repeated claim that Americans could keep their current coverage if they liked it.
In its low-key news release, the Treasury Department left intact the individual mandate, which requires most Americans to purchase health care insurance beginning in October or face steep fines to be levied by those "non-partisan" folks at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
A few Washington insiders are predicting the employer mandate may be ultimately repealed by Congress. This likely would prompt most companies to abolish their health plans and force individuals to purchase private insurance through government run exchanges.
The problem is the exchanges are a train wreck that threatens to derail the entire plan. Out of 50 states, only 17 and Washington, D.C. have been certified to create exchanges by the Health and Human Services Department (HHS). Open enrollment is less than four months away.
The exchanges are supposed to function as a single point of contact for consumers to shop and compare private insurance plans. Mushrooming cost overruns are plaguing the exchanges. HHS budgeted $2.2 billion this year for the plans. Costs are now expected to top $4.4 billion, according to the HHS.
Those bloated figures were not included in last year's revised price tag for Obamacare. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the health plan will cost $1.76 trillion over the next ten years, nearly double the original forecast of $940 billion when the law was approved in 2010.
Meanwhile, the White House quietly mentioned in April that it planned to reverse $500 million in cuts to the Medicaid program scheduled to start in 2013. These reductions were to be followed by more sharp decreases in 2022, effecting millions of seniors.
All these course corrections by the administration are nothing more than political recalculations. With the mid-term elections looming next year, Democrats fear a poorly implemented health care law could become an albatross around their collective necks.
People are beginning to notice Obamacare's obvious flaws. In a recent poll, 45 percent of Americans hold a negative view of the health care package. Only 29 percent support it. This does not bode well for Democrats, especially if there are further delays and missteps.
Virginian Republican Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, offered the best remedy for Obamacare.
Reacting to the Treasury Department's announcement, Cantor remarked: "The best delay for Obamacare is a permanent one."
He's right. Now it is up to Congress to fulfill Cantor's prescription for the health care law.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Today's Graduates: Unemployed and Underemployed
Few groups have been as loyal to President Obama as college students and recent graduates. They have turned out in record numbers the last two presidential elections to propel Obama to victory. However, the administration has not rewarded their loyalty by improving job prospects.
Federal government data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) sheds a light on the bleak employment prospects for graduates.
The latest BLS numbers for May show that 13.2 percent of 20-24 year olds are without jobs, compared to 7.6 percent for the overall population. Unemployment among this demographic was 6.5 percent in January of 2008 when Obama assumed the presidency.
The bad news doesn't end there for the 1.7 million young people expected to graduate in 2013.
There were 284,000 college graduates working in minimum wage jobs at the end of last year. That is double the number of grads taking home minimum pay in 2007. It represents a 70 percent increase from a decade earlier.
The unemployment rate for 16-19 year olds is worse. Unemployment for this demographic stood at 24.5 percent in the most recent BLS survey. That compares with a rate of 17.8 percent in January of 2008 when George W. Bush turned over the reigns to Obama.
Employment isn't the only crisis facing newly graduated young people. An average graduate leaves college with $27,000 in loans used to finance their education. The average starting salary for a graduate is $44,928, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
In 2009, the average starting salary for a college graduate was $49,307. Young people burdened with college debt have counted on rising salaries to help them pay off their student loans. Instead they are losing ground.
A Department of Labor survey found that employers expect to hire 2.1 percent more new graduating college seniors than they did last year. That might sound like good news, but it is 13 percentage points lower than projections made in the fall of 2012.
Evan Feinberg is president of Generation Opportunity, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy and research group that lobbies for more jobs for today's youth. He pulled no punches about the outlook for today's graduates.
"Young people are suffering disproportionately in this down economy," he said. "There are just no jobs out there."
As if to underscore his assessment, a New-York based public policy and advocacy group called Demos dug into the BLS numbers and found there are more than 5.6 million 18-34 year olds who are willing to work but can't find a job.
That group accounts for 45 percent of all unemployed Americans.
It is a sad tale. Yet young people 18-to-29 years old voted overwhelming for Obama in 2012. The president garnered 67 percent of their votes while challenger Mitt Romney carried only 30 percent. In key swing states, the youth vote tipped the scales for Obama.
So how do you explain the continuing loyalty of young people in the face of dire job prospects?
Today's graduates obviously don't vote their pocketbooks. Perhaps, when they are older, this will change. But for now they have no one to blame but themselves for sticking with the president who has presided over double-digit unemployment rates for young people during his tenure.
Federal government data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) sheds a light on the bleak employment prospects for graduates.
The latest BLS numbers for May show that 13.2 percent of 20-24 year olds are without jobs, compared to 7.6 percent for the overall population. Unemployment among this demographic was 6.5 percent in January of 2008 when Obama assumed the presidency.
The bad news doesn't end there for the 1.7 million young people expected to graduate in 2013.
There were 284,000 college graduates working in minimum wage jobs at the end of last year. That is double the number of grads taking home minimum pay in 2007. It represents a 70 percent increase from a decade earlier.
The unemployment rate for 16-19 year olds is worse. Unemployment for this demographic stood at 24.5 percent in the most recent BLS survey. That compares with a rate of 17.8 percent in January of 2008 when George W. Bush turned over the reigns to Obama.
Employment isn't the only crisis facing newly graduated young people. An average graduate leaves college with $27,000 in loans used to finance their education. The average starting salary for a graduate is $44,928, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
In 2009, the average starting salary for a college graduate was $49,307. Young people burdened with college debt have counted on rising salaries to help them pay off their student loans. Instead they are losing ground.
A Department of Labor survey found that employers expect to hire 2.1 percent more new graduating college seniors than they did last year. That might sound like good news, but it is 13 percentage points lower than projections made in the fall of 2012.
Evan Feinberg is president of Generation Opportunity, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy and research group that lobbies for more jobs for today's youth. He pulled no punches about the outlook for today's graduates.
"Young people are suffering disproportionately in this down economy," he said. "There are just no jobs out there."
As if to underscore his assessment, a New-York based public policy and advocacy group called Demos dug into the BLS numbers and found there are more than 5.6 million 18-34 year olds who are willing to work but can't find a job.
That group accounts for 45 percent of all unemployed Americans.
It is a sad tale. Yet young people 18-to-29 years old voted overwhelming for Obama in 2012. The president garnered 67 percent of their votes while challenger Mitt Romney carried only 30 percent. In key swing states, the youth vote tipped the scales for Obama.
So how do you explain the continuing loyalty of young people in the face of dire job prospects?
Today's graduates obviously don't vote their pocketbooks. Perhaps, when they are older, this will change. But for now they have no one to blame but themselves for sticking with the president who has presided over double-digit unemployment rates for young people during his tenure.
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