The share of adults with a job is the lowest it's been in decades.
There will be no full answer to the problem of jobs until the working class takes on the corporations – in Chicago and around the country.
But there could be many more jobs, right now, if Chicago provided the services a city should provide.
Fully staff every school. Hire enough teachers, librarians, aides, maintenance, clerical staff, custodians, nurses and social workers.
Provide full service for the whole city by the CTA. Hire the needed bus and train drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers.
Fix the city's infrastructure. Maintain the sidewalks, streets and sewers. Repair the crumbling viaducts.
Since private developers won't provide affordable homes, build decent public housing – and hire the maintenance staff and custodians to keep it in good shape.
Rebuild the health care system. Reopen the mental health clinics that Rahm Emanuel closed. Expand free primary care clinics, so every neighborhood has access.
Rahm Emanuel and the corporations he serves say Chicago can't afford it. They tell us the city is running a big deficit and is nearly broke.
They lie! The city gives away hundreds of millions of dollars every year to giant corporations and banks.
Our tax money goes to help build and maintain corporate buildings through TIFs.
Our tax money goes to almost every corporation in Chicago through tax breaks, incentives, subsidies and juicy contracts – which all aim to prop up business profits.
Our tax money is funneled to the big banks, which take in high interest and outrageous fees on every city bond they write.
That's money stolen from us. Take back that money. Use it to fix public services.
That would address our jobs crisis at the same time.