Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney On December Employment Report

With the new year upon us, it's a good time to reflect on whether the economic news Wall Street salutes is equally good news for working families. Viewed through the prism of jobs-the measure Americans care about most-the economy remains unbalanced and unsettled, giving working families plenty of reason to worry about what may lie ahead.

Although the economy added new jobs each month of the past year, job growth was spotty and uneven and occurred disproportionately in industries that offer low wages and little or no benefits. Tens of thousands of manufacturing workers, information service employees, communications workers and others lost good-paying jobs and were unable to find comparable work. Today, many of them are barely making ends meet with temporary and part-time jobs.

The manufacturing sector's anemic job growth in December, only 3,000 new jobs, does not begin to address the nation's desperate manufacturing crisis. During the president's first term, the nation has lost 2.7 manufacturing million jobs - more than during any presidential term of the past 60 years.

Meaningful and effective steps must be taken to reverse this disturbing trend, if we are to preserve and strengthen this vital sector of our economy.

The Labor Department's report that net job growth in 2004 was higher than in recent years is positive news but it does not obscure other troubling trends. Job growth over the last 18 months still falls 3.1 million short of the president's projections when he pushed for the last round of tax cuts.

Once again, actual job growth last month fell short of economists' projections and was barely enough to keep up with new labor market entrants. Employers cut more than one million jobs over each of the last four years and announced more job cuts in December than in any month since January. The number of unemployed and under-employed workers has barely budged all year. The unemployment rate has not moved for months, and new jobless claims shot up last week to their highest level in three months.

Numbers are only part of the story. Of equal concern to working families is the quality of jobs, which has declined as employers continue to cut corners in a corporate environment that elevates profits and executive pay over the interests of workers and their families. As Wal-Mart expands its reach throughout the economy, the Walmartization of jobs is contributing to the shrinkage of the middle-class, a frightening trend that shows no sign of reversal.

More than three years since the so-called recovery began and 15 months after job growth resumed, there has been no sustained improvement in workers' wages. Hourly wages are at roughly the same level as in November 2001 and are lower now than a year ago. And low and middle-income workers are squeezed as health care costs continue to rise and retirement security is increasingly imperiled.

The nation's 2004 trade deficit will exceed half-a-trillion dollars, a frightening and unsustainable imbalance that represents massive job loss and a genuine threat to Americans' economic security going forward. Meanwhile, our budget deficit is at its highest level in the nation's history, a situation that will worsen if the president succeeds in privatizing Social Security and locking in the millionaire tax cuts passed during his first term.

Our country's 14 million unemployed and underemployed workers cannot pin their hopes on uneven job growth that barely keeps pace with new entrants into the workforce. The president and the congress have no greater challenge and no greater responsibility than to enact and implement fair and sound tax, trade and budget policies that will create and keep good jobs in the U.S., build a solid and thriving labor market, and give working families the economic security they need and deserve.