America and the Struggle for Jobs

11 September 2011

Job seekers wait in line to enter a job fair on September 1 in San Mateo, California

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.

DOUG JOHNSON: And I’m Doug Johnson. This week on our program, we look at the job situation in the United States. There was zero job growth last month. The national unemployment rate was the same as in July, 9.1 percent. That does not even include people who have stopped looking for work or part-time workers unable to get full-time jobs.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Coming up, we talk to Don Peck, author of a new book called “Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures and What We Can Do About It.” And we hear from two people about what they had to do to find a job.

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FAITH LAPIDUS: Americans face different economic issues. Which one worries them most? A Pew Research Center-Washington Post opinion poll asked a thousand people earlier this month. Forty-three percent said the job situation. About half as many said the federal budget deficit.

Smaller numbers said rising prices and the financial and housing markets were their biggest economic worries.

Three out of four people said additional spending on roads, bridges and other public works would improve the job situation at least a little. Many said the same about cutting business taxes, the federal budget and personal income taxes. But there was no clear agreement about which ideas would do a lot to help.