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| Cecilia Rouse, White House Council of Economic Advisers |
Today at 4:30 pm Eastern, The Obama Administration held a conference call with community leaders regarding a new report that was submitted by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). The report detailed the urgent need for Congress to act on extending unemployment benefits, and claimed that failure for Congress to extend could cost Americans this holiday season 600,000 lost jobs by the end of the year.
“Extending this support to those hardest hit by this crisis is not only the right thing to do, it's the right economic policy,” said CEA Chairman Austan Goolsbee. “Letting millions more Americans fall into hardship will hurt our economy at this critical point in our recovery and immediately undermine consumer spending.”
Jamie Borromeo, National President & CEO of GenerationDrive, voiced the needs of young adults during this call, as a handful of community leaders were invited to participate in a Q&A discussion with White House Public Engagement Director, Tina Tchen and Council of Economic Advisers Member, Cecilia Rouse.
Borromeo’s Statement:
“You mentioned children, youth and working families will be impacted. But you did not mention young adults. Do you have any numbers on how many young adults will be affected if Congress does not extend unemployment benefits? Specifically those between the ages of 18-35—those who are recent graduates or new to the job market? Our organization truly believes there was a sharp decline in young voter turnout in the mid-term election because we are all so busy trying to keep our jobs or find jobs, so why vote if no party is addressing our needs? Could you tell us how the extension might benefit us?"
Rouse’s reply to Borromeo was, “We unfortunately do not have disaggregated data for young adults, but we do know that the unemployment benefits impact two-thirds of middle class families, which are those who earn between $20,000- $100,000 annually. We assume many young people will fall into this category, therefore this will have a disproportionate impact on this group, but we do not currently have official data available.”
Rouse also explained that, beyond the immediate affect it will have on individuals, there will be a macroeconomic effect if these benefits are not extended. It will impact family food & rent budgets and local restaurants & retailers.
GENERATIONDRIVE ACTION ITEM: Please contact your member of Congress and urge them to extend unemployment benefits. Statistics have shown that 20% of young people are currently unemployed, so this will certainly impact our community. Click here for contact information of Congressional Offices.
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