[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 11, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5178]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CURRENT UNEMPLOYMENT SITUATION IS GRIM

  (Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk 
about something that the President does not want you to hear about. It 
is called our country's current unemployment situation.
  Now, when the President began his term a little over 2 years ago, our 
Nation's unemployment rate stood at 4.1 percent, but today it stands at 
6.1 percent. That means that there are 2.6 million people more who do 
not have a job. That is not those people who lost their jobs during 
this time and were able to find another job that paid less. There are 
plenty of those people who are making less. Or those people who stayed 
on the job but had to make less because their wages were cut.
  No, these are people who are out of jobs, 2.6 million more people; 
1.1 million more of them in California.

                              {time}  1015

  The situation is even worse if you are a Hispanic, because the 
unemployment rate is now at 8.2 percent for Hispanics.
  More than 1.5 million Hispanics, Mr. President, have lost their jobs 
since you took office. We have got to start talking about this and 
doing something about this job loss.

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