3. As a result, we've had 54 consecutive months of economic growth -- but it's not widely enough distributed, and the help isn't getting to everyone who needs it.
4. Nearly 20 million Americans need full-time work. Job figures are especially weak for millennials, minorities and women (especially African-American women; and women overall lost more jobs during the long recession that took place after the crisis of 2008).
5. The jobs that have been created since the financial crisis skew toward lower-wage work.
6. A weak jobs market means weak wages for middle-class people who have jobs. The Economic Policy Institute reports that "Wages for the broad middle class declined over the last year, as they have for most of the past 40 years -- dismal wage growth has been a key contributor to income stagnation and growing income inequality."
In other words, helping the unemployed helps everyone.
Voters Hate This Economy
The lessons of the past five years should be clear by now: Democrats must offer bolder proposals, and they must draw clearer distinctions between their own position on jobs and that of their Republican opponents.
What they shouldn't do is attempt to take victory laps to celebrate an economy that is only working for the wealthiest among us. That will help the Republicans do what they've already begun doing: painting the Democrats, rather than themselves, as an out-of-touch party that is beholden to the economic elite.
The mood of the voters is clear. Voters think the economy is lousy and that government is more interested in helping the rich than it is in helping them:
-- 63 percent think most children will be worse off than their parents when they grow up.
-- 55 percent say this country's headed in the wrong direction on jobs and growth.
-- As we've already mentioned, 71 percent of millennials think the system's rigged in favor of the rich.
-- 59 percent personally worry about the economy a great deal, and 64 percent are suffering or struggling with their own financial wellbeing.
-- And, in a finding that could be especially damaging to incumbents, 71 percent of Americans believe that the primary source of our economic difficulties is our elected officials' inability to get things done to improve the economy.
(For details on this and other polling data, see PopulistMajority.org.)
Voters Want Jobs
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