Employment Rate of the U.S. Population

On February 8, 2011, Richard Fisher, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas made the following statement: "U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by 8.75 million jobs from their peak in January 2008 to their trough in February 2010. Estimates are that the population of Americans of working age increased by 4.4 million during the same period, creating a shortfall of over 13 million jobs. Since February 2010, the shortfall has only gotten worse: Although employers have added approximately 1 million new jobs, the working-age population has increased by an additional 1.7 million. All in all, we have approximately 6 million more people of working age than we did when the recession began—and a net loss of 7.7 million jobs. Divining policies that will encourage the private sector to increase hiring by enough to make up some of this lost ground is both an urgent and a daunting task."

The above statements by a Fed President should have everyone "pause, take notice and mediate" on his words that depict a very dire economic situation if we do not create jobs. (Look at the following graph that illustrates the negative trend of our employment rate.) Yes, it is definitely all about creating jobs.  That is, no jobs, no income, no spending, no tax revenue for Uncle Sam, no GDP growth, no nothing. Governments do not create jobs, only the private sector.  If our government is serious about job creation, it must get out of the way and implement user-friendly business polices.  Will it happen? In all sincere honesty, I don't believe it will. I, for one, am losing hope that America has the intestinal fortitude to win this battle.  It has entered that "slippery slope" of no return.