USA: Working out the Work Problem

Available for over a year

The official unemployment figures for the US jobs market suggest an improving picture, but the reality behind the statistics remains bleak. We look at the jobs situation in the US capital, Washington DC, where the evidence of who the winners and the losers are could not be clearer. If you have economic advantage to begin with and a good education, your chances are good. If you come from the wrong side of town, the odds remain stacked heavily against you. Professor Robert J Gordon one of America's leading employment economists gives us his analysis of the options open to both the government and the central bank for tackling the problem.