Amy Klobuchar: “I rise today to speak in support of the American Jobs Act. Rarely is our economy discussed these days without mention of…”

“I rise today to speak in support of the American Jobs Act. Rarely is our economy discussed these days without mention of the 14 million Americans who are currently out of work and searching for a job. But as you know, I am from your home State. This is not just a statistic. It is real people--people who are struggling, people who have had their hours cut, people who may have worked at a job for a very long time and, poof, it is gone away. That is what this is about. Two years after the recession officially ended, unemployment is still stubbornly high, at 9.1 percent--9.1 percent. When we factor in those who are working part time because they cannot find a full-time job, that number goes much higher, up toward 16 percent. Now, my home State, the State of Minnesota, is much better. We have an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent. But there are still too many people out of work or who are struggling with reduced hours at their jobs. While no group of workers has been spared by the high rates of long-term unemployment, the hardest hit have been older workers, those with a high school diploma, and then those I am sure you have seen in the construction trades. They have been hit very hard. We also have had issues with our timber industry in northern Minnesota. We have had some trouble in our iron ore mines, but they are bouncing back. The biggest problem I have heard of is for those in the construction industry.…”