Looking for Work

While the official unemployment rate dropped last Friday to 5.7 percent, Bob Herbert is correct to note that this bit of good news actually camouflages a much more depressing jobs picture as the underemployment rate and the number of workers who have left the labor market continue to grow. And to top it off, Bush appears uninterested in doing anything other than use this bad news to push to policies which in the short run will do nothing, and in the long run make the problem worse.

If the Bush administration has any real plans for dealing with the nation's employment problems, it is keeping them very carefully concealed. The president insists he's concerned and said again on Friday, "We will not be satisfied until this economy grows fast enough to employ every man and woman who seeks a job."

He's got a long way to go, and his only proposed remedy — ever more tax cuts for the wealthy — is not likely to get him there.