Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW Editor, Quoted by Press TV: 'Unemployment Top Problem In US,' Poll Says

Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

Mon May 19, 2014 1:4PM GMT
presstv.or

A new poll has shown that unemployment, dysfunctional government, and the state of economy are the most important problems facing the American people.

The recent Gallup poll which was released on Monday showed twenty percent of Americans said in May that unemployment or jobs was the most important problem they faced, up from 14 percent who mentioned the same issues as their top problem in April.

Nineteen percent of the respondents also cited dysfunctional government as the top problem the United States faces and 17 percent cited the US economy in general as the most important problem.

According to Gallup, these three issues – jobs, economy, and government – have been at the top of the "most important problem" list since the beginning of the year.

Data released by the US Department of Labor show US unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent in April from a high of 10 percent in October 2009.

However, analysts say much of the decline in the US unemployment rate is attributed to people who have dropped out of workfoce.

In a phone interview with Press TV on April 6, Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan-African News Wire, said the US government’s monthly report on unemployment rate in the country gives a “false picture” of the labor market’s condition.

“The unemployment rate only measures those people who are actively seeking work; when there is no work to be sought, of course, these people are considered not to be unemployed,” Azikiwe said.

Official US government data showed that even in April when the overall unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, the African-American unemployment rate was 11.6 percent which was twice the white jobless rate of 5.3 percent.