Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney Holds a Hearing On the Employment Situation: May 2009

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Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney Holds a Hearing On the Employment Situation: May 2009

JOINT ECONOMIC COMMITTEE HOLDS A HEARING ON UNEMPLOYMENT FOR MAY 2009

JUNE 5, 2009

SPEAKERS: REP. CAROLYN B. MALONEY, D-N.Y. CHAIRWOMAN REP. MAURICE D. HINCHEY, D-N.Y. REP. LORETTA SANCHEZ, D-CALIF. REP. ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, D-MD. REP. BARON P. HILL, D-IND. REP. VIC SNYDER, D-ARK.

REP. KEVIN BRADY, R-TEXAS RANKING MEMBER REP. RON PAUL, R-TEXAS REP. MICHAEL C. BURGESS, R-TEXAS REP. JOHN CAMPBELL, R-CALIF.

SEN. CHARLES E. SCHUMER, D-N.Y. VICE CHAIRMAN SEN. EDWARD M. KENNEDY, D-MASS. SEN. JEFF BINGAMAN, D-N.M. SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR, D-MINN. SEN. BOB CASEY, D-PA. SEN. JIM WEBB, D-VA.

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK, R-KAN. RANKING MEMBER SEN. JIM DEMINT , R-S.C. SEN. JIM RISCH, R-IDAHO SEN. ROBERT F. BENNETT, R-UTAH

WITNESSES: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COMMISSIONER KEITH HALL

[*] CUMMINGS: Thank you very much.

Good morning, I'd like to thank Chair Maloney for holding this hearing. I also welcome Commissioner Hall and his colleagues from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to brief us on the most recent unemployment data.

This morning's release reported May job losses totaling 345,000, almost half of the losses in recent months, but an unemployment rate of 9.4 percent, a jump of half of a percentage from the previous month. Adding up discouraged workers and part-time workers who cannot find fulltime employment, the unemployment rate jumps to 16.4 percent, the highest rate since the government started collecting this information in 1994.

However, it was also announced recently that the initial jobless claims for the week ending May 30th fell. The Consumer Confidence Index experienced a small uptick, and the European Central Bank held interest rates steady yesterday, signaling expectations that the global economy may just have bottomed out.

I am encouraged by the marginal improvements like consumer confidence. But even this good sign is accompanied by a sobering counterpoint.

Increased consumer spending has yet to translate into actual spending by consumers of businesses or businesses. Rather, families are saving, and I don't blame them. They see that more than one in four unemployed workers has been unemployed for over six months, and that the median duration of unemployment is now 14.9 weeks, a record high since the series started in 1967. The cumulative effects of the recession, 17 consecutive months of loss, totaling six million jobs, have left these ordinary, very hard- working Americans on precarious footing. When a worker is laid off, economists say that that person experiences a "income shock." This is a vast understatement.

Now, unemployed families must work through any savings they have accrued to pay bills and to continue to feed their children. And then, as home values fall and mortgages go unpaid, they're suddenly looking foreclosure in the face.

While the foreclosure crisis started with homes that fell victim to plunging values, and then moved to subprime sector, the borrowers facing interest rate hikes, now prime borrowers have been affected, as well.

The "New York Times" wrote on May 24 that, and I quote, this third wave o...

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