A non-profit economic research group today released an annual report on the state of workers in Pennsylvania that concluded that, absent policy actions taken by the federal government in the wake of the recession, Pennsylvania and the nation would be looking at double digit unemployment rates today.

Economists at the Keystone Research Center in Harrisburg estimate that, without the economic policy action of the Federal Reserve and the Bush and Obama administrations, national unemployment would be approaching 16 percent and the state unemployment rate would be in the neighborhood of 14 percent.

"Our economy is a product of conscious policy choices," said Dr. Mark Price, labor economist for the KRC. "Federal policy stopped the economic free fall. And policy choices at the national and state level will powerfully shape the future health of the economy for middle class families."

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