From Yahoo:
Even as economy mends, a jobless decade may loom

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Call it the Terrible Teens.

The decade ahead could be a brutal one for America's unemployed -- and for people with jobs hoping for pay raises.

At best, it could take until the middle of the decade for the nation to generate enough jobs to drive down the unemployment rate to a normal 5 or 6 percent and keep it there. At worst, that won't happen until much later -- perhaps not until the next decade.

The deepest and most enduring recession since the 1930s has battered America's work force.

The unemployed number 15.4 million. The jobless rate is 10 percent. More than 7 million jobs have vanished. People out of work at least six months number a record 5.9 million. And household income, adjusted for inflation, has shrunk in the past decade.

Most economists say it could take at least until 2015 for the unemployment rate to drop down to a historically more normal 5.5 percent. And with the job market likely to stay weak, some also foresee another decade of wage stagnation.

Even though the economy will likely keep growing, the pace is expected to be plodding. That will make employers reluctant to hire. Further contributing to high unemployment is the likelihood of more people competing for jobs, baby boomers delaying retirement and interest rates edging higher.

All this would come after a decade that created relatively few jobs: a net total of just 464,000. By contrast, 21.7 million new jobs were generated between 1989 and 1999.

Economist David Levy, chairman of the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center, says the country faces a new era of chronically high unemployment, averaging 8 percent or more over the next decade.

The "New Abnormal," he calls it.
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More at the link.

But if customers would boycott businesses that buy products made in China, maybe we could make a dent in the jobless rate.

 

protectionism doesn't create jobs. it ironically has the opposite effect.
also, products made in other countries are such a deep entangled part of US life now that this idea could not be done.

 

If customers could afford items made in america that this would be a valid point. But with the high cost of wages here dont expect that anytime soon.

 

The comment about jobs created in this decade turned this article into garbage. It's pretty silly to take 2 points in time and make a generalization like that. It makes it sound like things have been tough for the last decade...