Jobs and the Economy

JOBS AND THE ECONOMY -- (House of Representatives - April 28, 2004)

Mr. CUMMINGS. Madam Speaker, I will yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), my good friend, such time as he may consume.

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding. I also want to take this opportunity to commend the gentleman for his outstanding leadership as chairman of the caucus. And especially was I pleased to be at the National Press Club as he laid out in sharp relief for the national press what it really takes to get people involved in our country where African Americans stand, what we believe in, and what it is going to take to convince us that we need to be supporting different individuals who run for office.

And I was very pleased with the eloquence with which he displayed that information and conveyed it, and I want to thank him.

I am also pleased to join with him tonight and my colleagues to discuss the state of our economy and look at the job loss in America. I will not focus on the nearly 3 million jobs that have been lost since the President took office; but I will take a look in a micro-fashion just at my city, the City of the Big Shoulders, the city of Chicago, the city that sits by the lake.

In February, the Chicago Tribune reported that Chicago finished first as the job-loss Capital of America. The nine-county region lost nearly 58,000 jobs last year, outpacing every other major metropolitan area in this country. New York, the runner-up, lost 45,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The job loss in Chicago and throughout the State are troubling because Illinois represents mainstream, middle-of-the-road America. Major employers in Illinois have cut jobs. The hardest hit industry has been the manufacturing sector. Manufacturing jobs statewide are at their lowest levels since World War II, falling from 936,000 in 2000 to 870,000 today.

A number of job losses in Illinois and throughout the country can be attributed directly to this administration's policy of outsourcing. I could not believe it when a senior administration official suggested that that was a good and appropriate thing to do, NAFTA and cheaper wages overseas. Obviously, Chicago can never compete with the lower wages paid in China. However, our workers are the very best when it comes to productivity.

It is a shame that we do not manufacture dress shirts for men in America. Think of all the people who used to work in the garment industry, people who could go to work, knowing that they were helping to dress America. Now every time you look in the label, the back of whatever garment that you wear, you will find that it is produced somewhere other than in our country.

Therefore, we must utilize every effort to persuade companies to keep their manufacturing operations in America.

Even more troubling is the devastating job loss and high unemployment rate among African American males. We have a way of saying that if other parts of the community sneeze, then the African American community catches pneumonia.

When it comes to work opportunities, black men are seriously disproportionately unemployed. The Department of Labor statistics suggest that nationwide unemployment for African American males is 32 percent. In the city of Chicago more than 50 percent of young African American males between the ages of 16 and 22 are out of work and do not go to school, do not have a job.

The New York Times recently cited a study by the Community Service Society, a non-profit group that serves the poor. The study showed that in 2003 one of every two African American men between 16 and 64 was not working. Mark Levitan, the report's author, found that just 51.8 percent of black men, and I am not talking about Chicago, I am talking about the Nation, 51.8 percent of black men ages 16 to 64 held jobs in New York City in 2003. The rate for white men was 75.7 percent, for Hispanic men 65.7 percent, and for black women 57.1 percent.

The employment population ratio for black men was the lowest for the period Mr. Levitan has studied, which goes back to 1979. The tragedy is it is not just New York. It is Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, and other major cities in America.

I grew up in rural America where folks were hard-working, Bible-reading Christians. And my mother used to tell us that the Bible said that idle hands and an idle mind were the devil's workshop. And so we have to ask the question, if young African American men are not working, how are they surviving? Are they being driven to participation in the negative underground economy selling drugs and joining gangs?

It is for this reason that I, along with other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, the 100 Black Men of America, the NAACP, The Urban League, National Association of Black Psychologists, and others have begun to focus attention on the state of African American males. We have selected barriers to employment as an area of focus. And we hope over the next year to examine these issues in detail and provide some recommendations for needed changes.

Clearly, every segment of our society must be able to enjoy the American dream. I appreciate my colleagues for taking the time out to shed light on this subject this evening. And as I listen to different people talk about jobs that you cannot find, it reminds me of the song that we used to listen to some years ago that talked about a man who would get up in the morning and the writer wrote that every morning about this time she brings my breakfast to the bed crying, get a job. He says, "When I read the paper, I read it through and through, trying to see if there is any work for me to do."

The reality is that in too many instances the answer is absolutely, no. And if you cannot find a job, then you lose hope. You feel like a failure. You feel like you do not have a place.

Well, I believe that this administration is failing. This administration is failing because it has produced a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness among too many people. And when you fail, you ought to get a failing grade. And when you get a failing grade, sometimes you get put out.

Well, I believe the remedy, Madam Speaker, is to put this administration out and let us get in another group who can bring hope, who can bring to the American people a feeling that yesterday is dead and gone but tomorrow is something that we can look forward to. And what we want to look forward to is the ability to get up in the morning, go to work, have a job, produce for our families and children, and move America on to becoming even greater than what we have known it to be.

So I thank my colleague for taking out this Special Order and have welcomed the opportunity to participate in it.

END