Why Democratic Obama Administration Failed To Reduce U.S. Jobless Rate To Below 4 Percent

In his 2010 book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter indicated one reason why the Democratic Obama Administration failed to reduce the official U.S. unemployment rate below 4 percent during its four years in office:

"His advisors rejected WPA-style direct government hiring...Government jobs would have atttacked unemployment immediately. (In 1934, FDR and his relief administrator, Harry Hopkins, created 4 million jobs in two months.)...The failure to think more boldly about creating jobs would haunt the administration...

"...The Obama advisors figured that as long as unemployment stayed under 10 percent...they could slide through..."