Failing U.S. Education Will Dumb Down Economic Growth
Government and business leaders have worried about the economic impact of declining U.S. education. The day of reckoning may be here, says Chris Farrell
The American economy is starting to mend from the Great Recession, the nastiest downturn since the 1930s. The return to growth and better economic numbers is welcome, although a number of nerve-wracking problems lurk in the global economy, especially Europe's sovereign debt crisis and China's slowdown.
Yet assuming that the expansion remains intact, it will still take a long time for the worst labor market in 60 years to show signs of vigor. The unemployment rate is steep at 9.7 percent, based on Labor Dept. data for May 2010. The government's broadest measure of unemployment and underemployment, which includes the officially unemployed, people who want to work but aren't working, and in part-time jobs for economic reasons, is even higher at 16.6 percent.
The future looks a bit better, but unemployment will remain elevated. The consensus opinion of economists surveyed
