Below is the PolicyLink statement on the Senate Jobs Bill. For more information or to talk with our experts, please contact Dan Lavoie at dan@policylink.org.

“In passing the $15 billion jobs bill, the Senate’s bipartisan majority should be commended for heeding the voices of struggling Americans.

“But the road to a truly fair and sustainable economy is a long one. More must be done to get help to those hit first and worst by this recession, especially low-income communities and people of color.

“As we move forward in building an innovative, expansive, bipartisan recovery plan, we must make significant investments in job-training programs and a range of infrastructure projects – public transportation, schools, energy efficiency – that create jobs now and set our communities up for future success.

“This bill is a good first step. But America’s long-term resurgence requires that all of our communities are connected to opportunity and can contribute their full talents to our revival. We urge Congress to continue to advance a jobs agenda that lifts up all our communities.”

Today, I will join more than 130 innovative nonprofit leaders, small-business owners, global CEOs, and community leaders at the White House Jobs Summit. I am honored by this singular opportunity to bring the voices and ideas of low-income people and communities of color to the table.

But I sincerely hope this talented group does not merely attempt to restore our pre-recession economy. We must come out of this crisis stronger, with an inclusive, expansive economy that harnesses the skills of all people. We can no longer waste the talents and potential of millions of Americans.

In a report we released today – Finding Work, Finding Hope: A Step-by-Step Guide to Get Your Community Stimulus Dollars (and Jobs!) — we have laid out a short-term roadmap to help communities access federal stimulus dollars. The guide provides phone numbers, web sites, application links and all the other information you’ll need to get stimulus dollars to your community.

And as we move forward, how do we make sure equity is at the heart of our recovery?

• Train the next generation of “middle-skill” workers
• Stop foreclosures and put people to work keeping foreclosed properties from becoming blighted
• Start the “green revolution” in low-Income communities
• Invest in the long-term infrastructure of all communities

This is, of course, just the start. Do you have other ideas? Share them in the comments section.

The Jobs Summit should mark a banner day for all of us who work to ensure all Americans have the opportunity to participate and prosper. Because a recovery without equity is no recovery at all.

America is in a hole.  In the gravest threat to our economy since the Great Depression, we are facing rising unemployment; soaring food, energy, and health care costs; growing debts; a shrinking middle class; and widening inequality.To help us climb out, President-Elect Barack Obama plans to spend more than $700 billion on infrastructure projects.  This is promising, to be sure, but we need even more.

If we do this right, the Obama administration’s stimulus package can lay the groundwork for a healthier and more prosperous nation, not just in the months ahead, but for generations to come.  Big problems require big, bold solutions and this crisis requires nothing less than the reimagining of the American city. Let me explain: for decades, public policy has been to pour money into new highways to far-off suburbs, enabling even more sprawl and making us even more dependent on our cars. That kind of thinking is a non-starter. America needs smarter, more targeted spending (in people, places, and projects) that gets a solid return on our investment and actually strengthens communities too often left behind.

But how do we do that?

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Everybody will be focusing today on the scary top-line unemployment number: 7.2 percent. That is frightening for millions of Americans — and portends a truly abysmal job market for anyone looking.

But the Bureau of Labor Statistics report includes something that should really send a cold chill through the labor market: the number of “involuntary part-time” workers has reached 8 million, a massive year-over-year jump and the highest in history.

(click to enlarge)

The ranks of the underemployed is stunning….and especially worrisome for those just one or two paychecks away from economic ruin. Competition for low-wage jobs will surely increase in the coming months and low-skilled workers will have a much harder time finding new employment if they lose their current job.

That’s why job training, job retraining and apprenticeship programs are so vital. We have to give low-income people — especially young people — the chance to compete in this 21st century economy.

Yes, 7.2 percent is a big, scary number. But, sadly, it may only obscure the true breadth of the problem.

Thanks to Calculated Risk for the graph. If you want to understand the economics of the current downturn, head over there…very digestible and insightful stuff.

“Below the Line: The Changing Face of American Poverty”, the provocative series featured on the Tavis Smiley Radio Show, has profiled a vast range of people living at or below the poverty line in the United States. The series has critically examined what it looks like to be poor in America today, by telling stories as varied as the young, African American, single mother of two children who lost her job at Enron only to find herself making less than $10,000 a year as a nursing assistant; a young married couple, graduate student and carpenter, trying their best to sustain a family of five on the land by growing a community garden; and the Ethiopian immigrant working full time at a meat packing plant, and part time as a child care provider in rural Minnesota.

Angela Glover Blackwell frames each installment from a public policy perspective, while respective experts offer insight and strategic solutions for the foreclosure crisis, living wage, inadequate health care, homelessness, transitional housing, and ex-offender re-entry, along with other issues faced by a growing number of Americans.

Now you can catch the entire series right here on EquityBlog:

Episode One
The series begins with Terreal Grant of Baltimore who is coming out of poverty and drug addiction with help from the Thompson Mobility Program [PDF].

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Two
The second installment features Cici Youngblood, a college graduate who describes her path to poverty as “riches to rags” and Jeff Page, a former DJ who went from fame to a downward spiral into homelessness after cancer. Both profiles illustrate how poverty is compounded by health and how successful programs (e.g. Rainbow Apartments) in Los Angeles’s Skid Row community work to meet these challenges.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Three
Reporter James Mills shares the story of Abeba Adella of Minnesota. Originally from Ethiopia, Abeba left an abusive husband, raises two children alone, and works two jobs to barely avoid poverty.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Four
From Augusta, Georgia, reporter Charles Edwards speaks with two residents who struggle with less than the federal minimum wage. Richard Sparrow suffered a back injury and was shunned by employers as an insurance liability. Unemployed since 1996, Richard lives on less than 700 dollars a month, over half of which goes to medicine. Sunny Johnson, a former Enron employee, describes the sacrifices she makes with her wages from her day and night jobs.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Five
New Orleans producer Eve Abrams brings us the story of Vanessa Nevilles, who is struggling to find a job with health insurance, and Keith Carter who was shunned from employment after an arrest and a lengthy legal battle.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Episode Six
Executive Producer Cheryl Flowers visits Mississippi to find two stories of poverty in small rural communities. Mississippi is home to one of the highest concentrations of poverty in America.

[17 minutes | MP3]

Wrap Up
Dr. Cynthia Duncan, Founding Director of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire and Alan Jenkins, Executive Director of the Opportunity Agenda, joins Tavis Smiley and Angela Glover Blackwell for the series wrap up and analysis.

[53 minutes | MP3]

Audio courtesy of The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI. Check your local listings for more from Tavis Smiley.