Joblessness to stay high for 11 Years.................

Depending on which path the economy takes – the high growth of the mid-1990s, moderate growth or little growth – joblessness could stay high for up to 11 years, a new study for the Center for Economic Policy and Research says.
The study’s results prompted Sen. Al Franken and Rep. Keith Ellison, both D-Minn., to demand again that Congress pass legislation to retain up to 900,000 state and local government jobs – saying those services may be needed more than ever due to the continued high joblessness.

Excuse me, isn't the joblessness news bad enough without more private job crushing legislation from those who were not in the top 10 of there class scholastically.   One reason why towns and cities and even states are broke;  mandated pension plans of these public servants (cough).   The private sector, because of the lost jobs, could surely step in and would gladly accept the paycheck, minus the benefits, of a part time police or public work's person who only has to show up for the job 20 years or less before he can retire with a nice pension for life. Give the private sector some credit, they are accountable or they go out of business.  Private industry can compete with the union worker without, by law, paying union wages to get public contracts, why you could even fire the private worker, try firing a bad teacher now.

“Right now, we may be looking at a double-dip recession if we don’t continue to stimulate the economy,” Franken said. That’s what happened in the Great Depression, too, he noted: FDR ran huge deficits and put people to work in 1933-36 but then balanced the budget in 1937 and the nation plunged back into higher joblessness.
The prospect of continued high long-term joblessness produced differing solutions from the two lawmakers. Franken predicted “we’d have to continue taking these votes” to extend long-term federally paid unemployment benefits, just as Congress did from July 19-23. The measure passed and President Obama signed it.

Related story in China:

The State Council recently urged relevant departments to step up efforts aimed at raising the minimum wages of the nation's ordinary workers.

This was the latest move to change the status quo - of workers' pay being lower than that of government employees, especially those working for State-run monopolies. 

The Cabinet's move coincided with a flood of media reports that highlighted staff shortages at plants in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other coastal regions.

This intensive media scrutiny, along with the decisions by Foxconn and Honda to significantly raise the minimum wages of their mainland staff, has led some to believe that the era of cheap labor has come to an end in China.