Don Brunell: Stimulate the private sector to reduce joblessness

The stagnant jobless rate in our nation is even worse than it seems.

Nearly one in 10 of those eligible for work are receiving unemployment benefits, and if you add the people who have given up searching for a job, exhausted their unemployment benefits or are working part-time jobs to pay the bills, unemployment is close to 20 percent.

Most people want to work, pay their bills and put a little extra in the bank for their children’s college education or for retirement. But the Pew Economic Policy Group recently reported a record 30% – or 4.4 million – of the nation’s 14.7 million unemployed wor...