Where Are The Jobs?

Floor Speech

Mrs. SCHMIDT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask a simple question: Where are the jobs? My constituents, along with those across Ohio and our Nation are asking: Where are those jobs?

In my home State of Ohio, the unemployment rate has risen to 11.1 percent. We have the seventh-highest rate in the Nation. Every single county in my district is equal to or is higher than the national average, and Pike and Scioto Counties are actually above 15 percent, but that number is rather deceiving. Another large percentage of our population has either given up looking for work right now or has taken part-time or temporary work.

People in Ohio and in my district are hurting. We need jobs and we need them now. Only $6 million of the Department of Transportation Recovery Act dollars have been spent so far in Ohio. The Recovery and Reinvestment Act was supposed to provide immediate stimulus to create new jobs. Where are those jobs? People are hurting. Five months later, there are no jobs.

I'm asking: Where are the jobs?

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