Chairman Alan Krueger Discusses Reversing the Middle-Class Jobs Deficit

At 9:15 EDT on Thursday, April 26, 2012, President Obama’s Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Alan B. Krueger delivered remarks on “Reversing the Middle-Class Jobs Deficit” at the Columbia University in New York City, New York.

In his prepared remarks, Chairman Krueger said:

I will address problems in the U.S. labor market and President Obama’s blueprint to fix them.  My theme is that it will take a concerted national effort to reverse the problems that have been building in the job market for decades, and, although much more work needs to be done; we have made progress in the last few years.

Krueger added that:

The United States has considerable strengths that should help us to reverse the middle-class jobs deficit.  It is imperative for policymakers to develop and promote these strengths to create an expanding middle class and provide more opportunity for more young people, regardless of their family backgrounds.  As President Obama has stressed, this is the defining issue of our times. We face a critical moment in which we can pursue a path that leads to a more durable economy and growing opportunities for all Americans, or we can return to the policies that eroded the middle class and tilted an ever-increasing share of income into the hands of a fortunate few, who were allowed to play by their own rules.

Read Chairman Krueger’s remarks and charts.

See and download the related charts on slideshare.