Jobs and the economy remain the top priority.

According to DOL data released this morning almost 15 million people remain out of work and almost half of them have been unemployed for more than 6 months. This means the unemployed increasingly face the problem of losing their unemployment insurance compensation, the system of benefits which workers pay into to protect them from losing their wages if their employer decides to throw them out into the street.

According to th Economic Policy Institute, an extension of unemployment compensation benefits would create or save almost a half a million jobs and support a couple hundred thousand more. Here's what they say:

extending unemployment insurance benefits through 2011 would create or save 488,000 payroll jobs. The extension would also generate over 12 million weekly work hours for people who already have jobs, which means that extending benefits would support a total of 723,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Furthermore, though the estimated cost of continuing the extensions through 2011 is $65 billion, the actual cost, when accounting for the revenue from taxes paid on wages from UI-supported jobs and savings on social safety net services, is $25.9 billion. Unemployment insurance benefits are currently set to expire November 30.

So far newly elected Republicans have vowed to stick it to the unemployed. Obviously they don't see job creation or helping working families as really a part of their agenda.

Maybe just the "working families" on the corporate board of BP.