A Good Job is Hard to Find: Evidence for Extending Unemployment Benifits Already Exists

The March employment report showed widespread weakness in the labor market including, for the first time since 2003, a third straight month of falling employment. After months of job losses being contained in sectors associated with the housing bust, the economy is now showing losses in a wide array of industries. At the same time, unemployment is rising and jobs are harder to find. The labor market is trending downwards: in testimony before the Joint Economic Committee on April 4, 2008, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that “labor market conditions started to weaken more than a year ago.” Based on the labor market data, the slowdown in economic growth for the fourth quarter, falling home prices, and the ensuing crisis in the credit markets, most economists now believe we are in a recession.