Kent Conrad: “In looking at the jobs record of this President, what I see is that he is the first President who has lost private…”

“In looking at the jobs record of this President, what I see is that he is the first President who has lost private sector jobs in the last 70 years. I know it disturbs our colleagues to refer to the last President who lost private sector jobs, who was Herbert Hoover. In making that statement, we are not saying the economy is in the same status as during the Great Depression. Obviously, that is not the case. Joblessness in the Hoover administration was approaching 25 percent of the workforce. That is not the case today. But it is an accurate statement to say this is the first President in 70 years who has lost private sector jobs. It is also true that something is happening in this recovery unlike anything we have seen in recoveries since World War II. Here we are in this recession, 36 months past the business-cycle peak, and we are still not seeing meaningful job recovery. Something very different is happening. In fact, we are 5.4 million jobs short of a typical recovery. Something is wrong. Something is not working.”