The job crisis — Policies, fixes and the unemployed

Air Date: July 18, 2011

Hour 1

A passer by looks at a sign for jobs in Barre, Vt. on Thursday, July 7, 2011. Unemployment rises to 9.2 pct. in June, as employers add only 18,000 jobs. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot)

Roughly 14 million Americans, 9% of us, are out of work. There are five workers available for every one job. The average unemployed person has been looking for a job for more than nine months. And the longer a someone is out of work, the harder it is for he or she to find work. Most experts were taken by surprise by last month’s dismal job report and most all agree that while there are no quick fixes, we’ve got to do something — now. So says our first guest, Princeton economist ALAN BLINDER. He wrote about it in an editorial last week in the Wall Street Journal. Then we turn to New York Times economy reporter CATHERINE RAMPELL to talk about the plight of the unemployed – who they are, what the prospects are for their return to the workforce and why it feels like no one is paying attention.

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[audio: 071811_100630.mp3]

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