2010 Annual Report: Building the Foundation of Economic Security and Opportunity for All

Letter from the Executive Director

Friends,

After a sustained period of economic distress, last year we witnessed progress on several fronts. GDP continued to grow, corporate profits rebounded, employment rose, and joblessness fell to its lowest level in 18 months.

All good news, but with so many still suffering, we are far from out of the woods.

Unemployment remains unacceptably high. Roughly one in six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, with many desperately looking for jobs, others who can get only part-time work, and millions who have given up. Nearly half of the unemployed have been jobless for more than six months, and around a third have been without work for at least a year.

Job creation is slow and uneven. Even if jobs grew as fast as in the 1990s, when average job growth was three times today’s rate, employment would not return to pre-recession levels until January 2016.

And the jobs we are adding are not as good as those we lost. Job gains have been disproportionately concentrated in lower-wage industries. Higher-paying industries constituted 40 percent of jobs lost in the recession but made up only 14 percent of new jobs created since then.

No wonder eight in ten Americans say it’s a bad time to find a quality job. Three times as many Americans say that Congress’s top priority should be boosting economic recovery and new jobs versus cutting the federal budget deficit. And yet, the response from some quarters appears utterly deaf to Americans’ real concerns, and instead merely repeats the same old demands to slash the budget, reduce unemployment assistance, and roll back regulations, giving corporations and Wall Street a free pass when it comes to workplace practices.

It’s an answer that defies logic. There’s no more important moment for government to have workers’ backs than when they are on their backs. There is no more crucial time for government to work for working families than when economic forces are working against them.

That’s how America’s leaders responded to the Great Depression. They put government on the side of America’s workers—boosting wages, creating jobs, and strengthening worker protections. They knew that strengthening family economic security is the only guaranteed way to build a sustainable, robust, and fair economy.

We believe that too. That’s why NELP is fighting for the strongest unemployment insurance program in our nation’s history; working to raise the minimum wage and end wage theft; and pushing for a revival of the heartland’s economy so that millions of men and women who spent their careers building America are not left behind by economic change. It’s why we work to remove unfair barriers to employment for those seeking a second chance; support comprehensive immigration reform; and insist that good jobs are the indispensable cornerstone of an economy that works for all.

The highlights that follow are a snapshot of NELP’s 2010 achievements. We are pleased that with the generous support of our funders and our partners across the nation, we were able to help ease hardships for millions while bringing a sharper focus to economic and workplace problems and needed solutions.

We are proud of our past, and together with you, we look forward to building a future in which work is the foundation of economic security and opportunity for all.

With appreciation,

Christine L. Owens
Executive Director