In his Labor Day message to the nation, President Obama credits himself and his administration with having “pulled our country back from the brink” of economic disaster.
“In the last several years, we have pulled our country back from the brink, through a series of tough economic decisions,” Obama writes. “While we have come far, great challenges still face us.”
According to the Labor Department, the national unemployment rate stood at 7.6 percent when Obama inherited a faltering economy from George W. Bush in January 2009. Unemployment rose to 10.2 percent by October 2009, and, with the exception of February and March 2011, it has been at 9 percent or higher ever since. It was 9.1 percent in August — a month in which the economy created no new jobs. In addition, economic growth has slowed nearly to zero, raising fears that the country is entering another recession.
Obama’s Labor Day message is mostly a tribute to organized labor, one of the president’s key political supporters in 2008 and a major player in his re-election plans. “The right to organize and collectively bargain is a fundamental American value,” Obama writes. “This year has seen a vigorous fight to protect these rights and values, and on this Labor Day, we reaffirm that collective bargaining is a cornerstone of the American dream.”
Obama does not refer specifically to non-unionized labor in his message, even though unions represent a small (and shrinking) part of the American workforce. Union workers make up about seven percent of the private-sector workforce and about 36 percent of the public-sector workforce; looking at the economy overall, unions represent about 12 percent of all workers.
