Browse Research and Commentary

The number of unemployed continues to shrink, and job gains entirely in the private sector continue to be fast enough so that we can be whittling down the problem of both long-term unemployment and regular unemployment.

March 9, 2013, Gary Burtless, National Public Radio

There are a lot of steps between when the raw data are collected and we end up with estimates of the unemployment rate, where either mistakes or purposeful manipulation could affect things. But the people in the Bureau of Labor Statistics are much more loyal to their professional duties than they are to the person who happens to be holding office at the time, and who may not be there in six month’s time.

October 5, 2012, Gary Burtless, National Public Radio

Presidents, governors, and mayors can have an impact on job creation during their terms in office. Almost always, however, the impact is small in relation to the effects of events and trends over which elected officials have little control, especially in their first few years on the job. A recession that is underway or begins soon after a president or governor takes office is in no way the fault of the new officeholder.

September 4, 2012, Gary Burtless, PolitFact

The college diploma does give people some immunity [from joblessness]. It’s not 100 percent, but it does give them some immunity from the worst consequences of the terrible job market.

August 30, 2012, Gary Burtless, National Journal

A lot of these [Republican proposals] are laughable in terms of a jobs plan that would produce noticeable improvements across the country in the availability of employment in the next four or five years.

July 24, 2012, Gary Burtless, msnbc.com

To keep pace with the growth in [America's] working-age population, employers need to add between 90,000 and 100,000 jobs every month.

June 15, 2012, Gary Burtless, Xinhua

"There's never been a postwar era in which unemployment has been this high for this long. Workers are in a very weak bargaining position."

February 1, 2012, Gary Burtless, Real Wages Fell In 2011 Amid Record Corporate Profits

"There is a lack of confidence that demand would exist for the extra products businesses would produce by increasing hiring."

October 14, 2011, Gary Burtless, Regulation: Not the Job Killer GOP Says

"[B]usinesses are not confident there will be enough potential customers to justify expansion or even routine capital replacement right now."

October 4, 2011, Gary Burtless, Misrepresentations, Regulations and Jobs

This is the slowest growth we've seen in this manufacturing index since summer of 2009. I think we're going into reverse.

August 1, 2011, Gary Burtless, Manufacturing's Woes May Be Just Beginning

"If [the Dodd-Frank Act] has had an effect, it has been on financial services industry, and those companies have returned to profitability."

July 6, 2011, Gary Burtless, Romney keeps up the recession drumbeat

"Unemployment is the best-known measure of the health of the U.S. economy and it's an indicator of economic performance that is lagging."

March 3, 2011, Gary Burtless, Will it be Obama vs the economy in 2012?

"It's not really been the layoff rate that's been the problem in most of 2010. It's been the failure of employers to create vacancies."

December 30, 2010, Gary Burtless, Fewer join unemployment rolls; good sign for '11

"In occupations that are more skilled and change a lot, if you haven't done something to keep up, the employer might think: Why should we spend a lot of our money over the next few months to get this person back up to speed?"

December 20, 2010, Gary Burtless, Jobless Americans wary of losing their edge

"If workers can take longer to find the best job opening given their skills it saves training costs and it certainly helps workers earn better wages and earn better incomes over their lives. We don't want skilled lathe operators to become janitors. We would like expensively acquired skills to be put to use in jobs where they will have the highest payoff."

April 15, 2010, Gary Burtless, Jobless Benefits May Help People Get Right Job

"The falloff in the [labor-force] participation rate has been really saddening. It indicates that a lot of folks have given up. It’s a strong signal of their pessimism about what the job market has to hold for them."

March 5, 2010, Gary Burtless, Unemployment rate: 9.7 percent. Underemployment: far higher.