Jobs growth data for December 2004 was recently released. Below are the facts. This data comes from the Economic Policy Institute's JobWatch web feature. Click here for background documents.
Job creation failed to meet the administration's projections in 15 of the past 18 months.
Job growth over the last 18 months has fallen short by 1,703,000. This number is more than one-third less than the number of jobs the administration said would be created, even without the tax cuts.
The administration expected the tax cuts to generate 1.4 million jobs. This did not happen. The administration expected a little over 5.5 million jobs to be created between June 2003 and December 2004. In reality, only 2.4 million jobs were created.
Job growth in December of 2004 fell almost 150,000 jobs short of projected estimates for that month alone.
In other jobs related news, an article in yesterday's New York Times discusses the fact that even though overall unemployment levels may have dropped, the number of workers who have been jobless for over a period of 6 months has remained very high. Six months is the point at which unemployment benefits run out for people, and as of November 2004, one in five unemployed workers were jobless for more than 6 months. A total of 3.6 million workers ran out of unemployment insurance last year, and according to the Times, this statistic is higher than it has been in at least three decades. President Bush and prominent members of Congress seem to believe that tax cuts will create more jobs. The numbers, however, do not appear to be lining up.