Mitch Landrieu: “we are living in difficult economic times. Too many people are out of work and the economy is not growing enough to put…”

“we are living in difficult economic times. Too many people are out of work and the economy is not growing enough to put them back to work permanently. The March unemployment rate was 5.8 percent and it has been holding around this mark for about a year. More bad news came just last week when the number of jobless claims soared to 445,000 for the week ending March 29. That is the highest number of weekly claims for unemployment benefits in almost a year. While unemployment has been rising, other economic indicators are dropping. New orders for manufactured goods in February decreased $4.9 billion or 1.5 percent; shipments also fell 1.5 percent, the largest decrease since February of last year. These cold, hard numbers cannot measure the unease and uncertainty many Americans feel today. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index fell 2 more points in March after a 3 point drop in February. When your neighbor is out of work and cannot find a job, you worry that you might be next. So you hold off on buying that new washing machine, the new car you need to get to work, or you put that dream vacation on hold. Americans have experienced losses in their pensions and 401(k) plans. When you combine all of this with the uncertainty surrounding the war against terrorism and the war with Iraq, you create a great drag on the economy. I think all of my colleagues agree that the economy is not where we want it to be right now. We agree that it needs a booster shot.”