 | |||
| Publications | Issue List | Vote Analysis | Main Page |
| January 29, 2002 | |||
The Economic Situation Facing Employers
As Congress considers legislation impacting employers, it should bear in mind the challenges employers face in this tight economy.
- Economic growth was most recently measured at -1.3 percent and has not exceeded 2.0 percent since the third quarter of 2000 (source: Commerce Department).
- Growth in consumer demand has dropped to just 1 percent from nearly 6 percent in the beginning of 2000 (source: Commerce Department).
- Investment in businesses has fallen every quarter since December 2000 (source: Commerce Department).
- After-tax corporate profits have fallen every quarter since September 2000 (source: Commerce Department).
- The jobless rate has shot up to 5.8 percent after spending the year 2000 near 4 percent. It is 9.6 percent for those aged 20-24 and 16 percent for those aged 16-19 (source: BLS).
- Some 1.4 million jobs have been lost since the official beginning of the recession (March 2001). Eighty percent of lost jobs came from manufacturing (source: BLS).
- "The manufacturing sector has been weak for an extended period of time. The industrial production index, for example, peaked in June 2000 . . . 1.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since July 2000" (source: JEC).
- Federal regulations impose a hidden tax of $1,700 per employee per year (source: George Mason University's Mercatus Center).
- Every percentage point increase in the jobless rate results in 860,000 Americans losing their health insurance (source: MIT, NBER, Kaiser Family Foundation).
- Employee health benefit costs increased 11.2 percent in 2001, or about $600 per employee. Health benefit costs have risen faster than inflation for the past four years and are expected to stay in double digits in the near future (source: William M. Mercer).
Top Publications Issue List Vote Analysis Main Page