Statement by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
On the Biggest Swing in Unemployment Rates since 1986
June 6, 2008

The economy is in meltdown. Today’s report isn’t isolated – it is part of a long-brewing problem that is toxic when combined with falling incomes, the mortgage crisis and out-of-control everyday gas, food and health care costs. For working people, the numbers mirror the worries around the kitchen table each night. For legislators and policymakers, the numbers should be a red flag that it is high time for aggressive action.

Our economy shed jobs for the fifth straight month. Among African Americans, unemployment rates are even worse, jumping to 9.7 percent in May from 8.6 percent in April. There is one job for every two people seeking work.

Today, Congress has an opportunity to give desperately needed help to the 1.55 million people who have been jobless for more than six months. The bill to fund the Iraq war must include an extension in unemployment benefits. The Iraq war continues to take funding away from working family priorities such as education, infrastructure, and Medicare. The least Congress can do is extend the unemployment benefits that are running out for millions, stripping away a crucial safety net protecting many families from falling into financial ruin. Already, long-term unemployment is higher than when Congress extended unemployment benefits during the last two recessions.

Congress must also provide relief to cash-strapped states and enact an immediate moratorium on subprime mortgage foreclosures. In addition, we need to put people to work with a major initiative that green-lights ready to go infrastructure projects that will rebuild our crumbling schools, bridges and roads, including emphasis on the green jobs of the future.

And we need to begin now on a far-reaching, long-term strategy to turn around the failing economy by addressing the structural flaws that put corporate profits above people. Instead of proposing solutions, Republicans like Pres. Bush and Sen. McCain continue to promote the wrongheaded economic policies on taxation, deregulation and trade that got us into this mess in the first place.

The economic squeeze is choking off the American dream for millions of working families. The time for delaying has passed.