“Second star to the right, and straight on till morning.” Peter Pan to Wendy on how to get to Never Neverland.

Never Neverland, the magical background in Peter Pan, is where boys go when lost by their nannies, where children never grow up. Based on our nation’s economy and the actions of our government – it appears that our elected officials might be on a trip to Never Neverland.

In December 2008, the nation’s official unemployment rate was 7.2 percent. Last month, the rate was 9.5 percent. And even that estimate may be low. According to the Washington Post, the real rate of unemployment might be “16.5 percent when you add in discouraged Americans who have stopped looking for work and those who want to work full time but can only find part-time jobs.”

This equates to 25 million Americans who are either out of a job and looking for a job, discouraged and have given up looking, or who are working part-time, but want to work full time. This is a serious, real-world problem that is not only affecting them, but also their families.

The market had a small rally last week, after the Federal Reserve revised forecast predicted modest growth in the coming months. While this might have been good news for those invested in the market, for those who work everyday, the news was not so good. This same forecast predicted no real recovery in jobs any time soon and it predicted that the economy will not recover fully for at least five years.

What good is a small economic growth to the 25 million Americans who are unemployed, discouraged or underemployed, if there is no growth in jobs? The answer – not much.

This bad news should cause our government to refocus to jobs, jobs, jobs - and how to create jobs, jobs, jobs. Continued...