Government has welcomed the fall today in unemployment. Meanwhile, the Obama team have emailed supporters with a graph declaring "We're on the road to recovery."
On the morning that the British Government welcomed the fall in ILO unemployment and youth unemployment, Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe has emailed the President’s list of 13 million supporters with an email declaring “We’re on the road to recovery.”
The chart, reproduced below, shows how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has helped slow increases in unemployment.
Although the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance has increased, figures out today in the UK confirm that the recession has had a milder impact on jobless numbers. The Office for National Statistics writes today:
“When compared with previous recessions, the unemployment rate in the 2008-09 recession has remained lower.”
The UK stimulus was considerably smaller than the US stimulus so continued support is needed to secure the recovery. Left Foot Forward will have more analysis on the jobless numbers later today.
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7 Responses to “The power of stimulus”
Ben Cooper
RT @leftfootfwd: The power of stimulus: As new UK jobless figures published, Obama's campaign manager shows why Keynesianism works http://bit.ly/9g5pID
Dominic Campbell
The power of stimulus (or just the cyclical nature of Capitalism?) http://bit.ly/9g5pID (via @leftfootfwd)
Billy Blofeld
Thus it is a shame that instead of Obama we had Gordon Brown running things over here.
Firstly Gordon had already pissed all our money up the wall – so that when compared relatively, in this country we could only afford a tiny stimulus.
Secondly, he put what little resources he had into VAT as a stimulus. What a total prat.
Tim Worstall
Snigger. The official recession lasted from Dec 2007 to Dec 2009. So the idea that job losses slow down towards the end of a recession might have something to do with that really.
Will Straw
Billy – I dont normally agree with you but I agree that VAT was the wrong way to spend £12bn. But it has still had a stimulative impact and the £5bn spent on labour market guarantees have been critical.
Tim – Don’t you think the stimulus had something to do with the US coming out of recession too?