Leadership Conference on Civil Rights

Americans don't have to wait for the statistics to know these are very hard times. For the fourth month in a row, the economy lost jobs in April. The economists said the contraction was not as bad as expected — 20,000 jobs were shed versus an anticipated loss of 75,000. Not as bad as expected is cold comfort.

The latest employment report shows other deepening problems for American workers, including slower wage growth, cutbacks in hours, a sharp increase in the number of part-timers who would prefer full-time work and lengthening spells of unemployment.