Jobless numbers raise voter anxiety

When the U.S. Department of Labor announced Friday that unemployment had reached a two-year high, it is unlikely the news took many in Illinois by surprise.

For months now, we've been besieged by what seem near-continual announcements of layoffs, lost jobs, pay cuts, pay freezes and hiring freezes. And those losses have been recorded across a wide variety of industries including automakers, food processors, media, retail and finance. They've included such venerable names as Kraft, Chrysler, Home Depot, R.R. Donnelly and Countrywide Financial, to name but a few.

Obviously, Illinois is not alone. The labor department report put the nationwide unemployment rate at 5 percent in December and the number of unemployed at 7.7 million. The most recent Illinois data had state unemployment at 5.2 percent in November. Those are grim numbers and many economic experts suggest they also are a harbinger of recession.

Whether they are or not, they are certainly reason enough for presidential candidates, expected to descend here and elsewhere in advance of the Feb. 5 primary, to tread carefully, no matter how celebratory may be their mood.

The average voter does not share that mood at the moment, and particularly not in the area of employment. They are personally experiencing the reality of the numbers. And the only employment sectors adding jobs at the moment are professional/technical sectors requiring high education levels, and service jobs, traditionally the lowest-paying, while construction and manufacturing are hemorrhaging jobs.

Even worse, the jobs report shows that the number of government jobs continues to grow, despite the fact that governments everywhere are not paying their bills and are burying current and future taxpayers in debt. Government jobs increased from November to December 2007 by 31,000 and by 274,000 from December 2006 to December 2007.

That means taxpayers struggling to stay employed and financially afloat in the private sector are paying the tab for more and more jobs that carry higher salaries, better medical benefits and pension plans more lush than they can afford themselves. And few of those government jobs help create jobs in the private sector nor have they made government more responsive and efficient, especially in dysfunctional Illinois.

That does not make for much enthusiasm for government in general or toward those who presume to lead it. Politicians in both parties might be wise to remember the words of James Carville, who twice got elected Bill Clinton under the mantra of "It's the economy, stupid."

And they would certainly be wise to remember that while most of them are getting government paychecks and government benefits, the rest of the nation is struggling just to pay its bills. The first candidate who engages the public on that visceral issue in something other than platitudes and quick fixes that further increase debt or government just might come away the winner.