President Obama and Congress Tap Dance Around Unemployment

President Barack Obama is shuffling in a major way to convince millions of out-of-work Americans that his administration is doing all it can to help them find jobs.

"To every American who is looking for work, I promise you we're going to keep on doing everything that we can," Obama said. "I will do everything in my power to help our economy create jobs and opportunities for all people."

While addressing the American public this week, Obama announced another push for stimulus to the economy, focusing primarily on the development of additional broadband infrastructure for those with little or no Internet access. The president said that the initiative would create 5,000 construction jobs in the short-term.

While the president admits that recent economic numbers have not been as strong as some had hoped, he reiterated that the nation is on the right path. "We're not headed there fast enough for a lot of Americans," Obama said. "We're not headed there fast enough for me, either."

The most recent jobs report this week says that businesses are not hiring as quickly as first expected. But much of the job loss was due to the end of 225,000 census jobs, which were temporarily created by the government. Obama reminded the public, however, that private sector hiring had seen a marginal increase during the prior month.

The civilian unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level since July, 2009, but much of the drop was due to over 650,000 Americans simply giving up looking for work. When workers stop looking, they stop being counted among the unemployed. Currently, there are 14.6 million Americans looking for work right now.

Even President Obama would agree that an initiative designed to create 5,000 new jobs is like opening a child's piggy bank when his parents are a year behind in their mortgage. Bold effort on the part of Congress is critical, and such effort has been severely lacking. Now is not the time to worry about the deficit getting out of control, or our national debt being too high. People need help and they need it right now.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.