A December article in the New York Times reported that job creation patterns will indeed add to alarm about the vitality of America’s economy. This fall season has experienced incalculable fluctuations in job creation as 172,000 jobs were created in October and drastically decreased to 39,000 for jobs created in November. The focus is on spurring job creation as more than 6.3 million Americans have been jobless for at least six consecutive months.

With a stalled economy the prospect of job creation is dim due to the latest increase in national unemployment. The jobless rate hit 9.8%, a near increase of four percentage points since 2008 as reported from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A United States chief economist suggested the reason the economy is stagnant is that business leaders are conserving and unwilling to take an aggressive direction in job expenditures.

Economists cautioned that 100,000-125,000 jobs created a month were necessary in order to keep the jobless rate from rising. The Administration faced with this reality is under intense pressure to revitalize the economy towards safe recovery by extending unemployment benefits and tax cuts for the working class. Currently, President Obama is in the process of a tedious compromise package on tax cuts and unemployment benefits with democrats and republicans to circumvent igniting another major recession. Only time will tell if he can bridge the disagreement for the better of the American people.

Fernando Orozco (forozco@uwm.edu)