Horrible news about jobs, and it's getting worse

[Elwood P Dowd]

http://www.tradealert.us/news_item.asp?NID=2024240

From the Washington Times (of all places) via Trade Alert.

Wholesale and retail trade, waitresses and bartenders account for 46 percent of new jobs. Education and health services, administrative and waste services, and financial activities account for another 46 percent.

This has been the profile of U.S. employment growth for a number of years, along with some construction jobs filled by legal and illegal immigrants. It is the job profile of a Third World economy.

From January 2001 to January 2006, the U.S. economy lost 2.9 million manufacturing jobs. The promised replacement jobs -- "new economy" high-tech knowledge jobs -- have failed to materialize.

High-tech knowledge jobs are also being outsourced abroad. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. employment of engineers and architects declined by 189,940 between November 2000 and November 2004 (latest data available). Economist Alan Blinder estimates that as many as 56 million American jobs are susceptible to offshore outsourcing. That would be about half of the U.S. work force.

Offshoring has contributed to the explosion of the U.S. trade/current account deficit over the last decade to $800 billion annually and rising. The United States has a trade deficit in manufactured products, including advanced technology products, of more than a half trillion dollars annually, a sum far larger than the oil import bill.

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[Vincardog]

1. The NeoConvicts New World Order is working as planned.

[AmandaRuth]

2. K & R

In my state, the state employment page suggests that Housecleaners will be a "growth" industry. People sure get what they vote for, don't they.

[DanCa]

3. Hunger will be the tipping point in this country.

When the price of gas plus the current job situation start to take away food from peoples bellys than the crap will hit the fan.

[proud patriot]

4. If we had a strong middle class

my husband's business would be doing better .

[mcscajun]

5. No surprise here. When I left (not willingly) my IT job three years ago...

...I enrolled in Bartender's School. I also took courses for Substitute Teaching.

The ladder goes Down these days, mostly. Not so much up. Quite a bit of sideways yet...but not for long.

I'm currently UNDEREmployed in the other big "industry": Healthcare. The aging Boomers (of which I'm one) ensure growth in this field.

[Double T]

6. The time has come to get some fire in the belly of the ENTIRE.....

MIDDLE CLASS and take some direction from the young working class people of France.

[undergroundpanther]

7. Slave based economy

Don't go to college you will never get a job.
Detainee work camps are around the corner people.Cough on an airliner..and you'll dissapear!http://www.unknownnews.org/0604250421flu-detentions.html.Illegal immigrants are already being exploited(even though to some of them it might not feel that way because in their country they could not work or they flee persecution). Get educated american people humiliated by an insane job market make them feel futile enough to be a janitor or suffer on unemployment,get them fall into debt to survive,buy food on credit,than soon they'll submit to anything to feed their family.

Debt slavery works all over the world.
The wonders of the global economy.. and the debt you owe is owned by a rich greedy man somewhere who will not forgive even if you die . It's easy to create a slave state tell people they are free while you regulate spy and intrude ever more into their lives,make the state a corporation and don't give the populace the memo..And hold a populace hostage,by debt and their "Independence" and fear,and shame of being poor,teach them to live in dread fear of income equality (communism ooga booga)and fear taxes so they will not support the social safety net..

Then drive them into futile hopes and make them desire to buy,make them jealous make them envy make their lives so crazy-making they'll do ANYTHING to escape their fast fading"freedom...Who wants to be a millionaire?

Get with it folks wage work is not freedom A rich parasite knows this but a "I pulled myself up, I pay my debts ,"upstanding"citizen" plays the rube and he takes PRIDE in this..Because he does not want to think he is a sucker..but he is..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_slavery
We already are debt slaves..

I will never be a millionaire..
http://www.g-r-e-e-d.com/GREED.htm

Not in my lifetime,I have a better chance of getting struck by lightning twice than willing the lotto big enough to be financially secure for 2 years in Maryland.If I ever win,DU will get a very nice donation,and I will open a "free store"where people can exchange unwanted stuff for other people's unwanted stuff(Abbie Hoffman came up with the "free store" concept.. you exchange 1 thing for 1 thing and that thing need not be a thing) And I would set up free/very low rent sustainable homes..( charge enough to pay upkeep and property tax).But no sociopaths and bully types (people that steal,exploit,harass who do not care about their place,and let it run down abuse rape etc.)would be allowed into these closed communities.I say this because to have a co,community one must give up enough"freedom" to get along with others,if you refuse to do that simple type of cooperation,and you exploit the freedom and the community you are not welcome here)
It will be an ASSHOLE FREE Zone. Something that has never been before on this Earth as far as I know . You can be as freaky as you wanna be,as long as you respect others, and respect boundaries within limits. Community Equality and commitment balanced with personal freedom and individuality is the expectation here,no exploitation,no abuse,no not doing your part(within reason).This community would be all about being involved,caring,sharing,being trustworthy and having right relationships.
Asshole Free Zone Discussion..
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=276x900

[jbnow]

10. Powerful post but some thoughts

that came to mind

Get educated american people humiliated by an insane job market make them feel futile enough to be a janitor or suffer on unemployment,get them fall into debt to survive,buy food on credit,than soon they'll submit to anything to feed their family.

Debt slavery works all over the world.

Educated or long time plant workers who have been laid off might not be able to take that janitorial job. It's hard work. Better be healthy! And as one of the "jobs Americans won't do" employers have lowered the pay and benefits too.

It is honorable work! We'd miss janitors in cities long before we would miss CEOs. It's one of few jobs where when you walk out of a room you have really made a difference. My grandfather was a janitor for a university, he was in charge of that division by retirement and earned and invested enough that he left a healthy bequest to his kids and grandkids.
But many schools and agencies that hired janitors and made it a profession now go with "rent a janitor" agencies where they are poorly paid and without benefits.

Now here's another part of the story. Let's say you're happily working at a high paying job you thought was secure. You lived within your means until you got laid off after 20 years. Perhaps your job was outsourced or maybe "in-sourced. (In the immigrant bills not passed they have an automatic increase in H-1B visas that big employers like to abuse by having workers train them and then laying off the American workers to pay foreign workers half as much)

You finally find work at half of what you were making but since 46% of new jobs are the ones we hear Americans won't do even at half your wages you are over the median income. You've used up much of your savings while you looked for new work because unemployment is so low and your mort gate, health insurance, kids braces and so on are so high.

Then your wife gets sick and your new insurance has a yearly cap and the medical bills for her hospitalization and chemo leave you with crushing debts. You need to file for bankruptcy. Too bad, no exemption in that new bankruptcy bill. Just too bad. You can't file normal bankruptcy. You are in a world of sh*t bucko.

They are getting us from every side.

[lovuian]

8. America is headed for a depression triggered by high oil

prices...and the greed of the Robber Barons... I feel like we are in the 1920's...

I feel like the American Worker needs to step up and be heard... hopefully in 2006 they will be...

[RebelOne]

9. I was in line at Big Lots today and there were only 2 aisles open

and a whole lot of people waiting in line. I turned to the lady behind me who was wearing a Toys 'R Us uniform and I said that this store needs to hire some more people for the check-out lanes. She said that all the stores are downsizing because three people at her job were laid off this past week.

[HockeyMom]

11. Self service check out

You don't have those? Scan and bag your own merchandise. We are now eliminating more jobs because of this. I REFUSE to use those. I will stand on a line with only one item, if it means a LIVE PERSON will scan and bag for me. I have even refused to use that scan and bag when a manager has asked me to.

[boston bean]

13. I do the same exact thing. My mom does too. We can't let these

bastards win!

:toast:

[Daphne08]

19. I don't use them for the same reason. n/t

[RebelOne]

23. Yes, even here in the redneck Deep South,

we have self-service check-outs. I do use them when I only have a few items because I find them more convenient then standing in line.

[wordpix2]

12. one stat from MTP with Ted Kennedy: we have less than 50K engineers gradu

ating US colleges each year, and half are foreign students. China has about 650,000 engineer-grads each year. Kennedy was saying we should pay for students to go to college because we're falling behind. He said we could take the $1 trillion spent on Iraq and put it into higher ed.

Yes, if we have any money left after Chiimp & Co. bankrupt us completely.

:thumbsdown:

[Elwood P Dowd]

15. It's getting really scary at the engineering schools

Here in Alabama, the graduate school at Auburn University's Electrical Engineering Department is comprised almost totally of foreign students - most are from India and China.

[entanglement]

22. It's rather common at large universities

America has always attracted talent from all over the world (many of the scientists involved in the Manhattan project were foreign born, for example). I'd prefer that those who come to the US for advanced degrees stay here, become citizens and contribute to the US economy rather than leave and take their expertise elsewhere.

OTOH, something needs to be done to encourage American students to pursue advanced degrees in science and engineering. Considering that a PhD in the sciences may take as many 6 years to complete, it's easy to see why students aren't too enthusiastic about graduate school.

[catmandu57]

14. We had a manufacturing economy here

Then one after another the factories have been closing down, there is only a ghost of what once was. In place of well paying union jobs we have built shopping malls, and restaurants, jobs that pay the minimum or less in the restaurants.
I don't know what people will do, I've already taken my out surviving on disability, when that goes I go.

[rucky]

21. If we don't make anything, we're just selling air.

I don't understand how economists can so easily dismiss that sector of the economy. Without it, we have nothing.

[barb162]

16. The Democrats need to pick up on this BIGTIME.

Offshoring is a disaster to this country's educated labor force, its middle class and also other classes. It's way better to have manufacturing here and people employed in good salaried jobs and pay a bit more at the stores

[Bozita]

17. "It is the job profile of a Third World economy." -- WOW!

Strong stuff!

[RedEarth]

18. Truly scary.........

[rucky]

20. I just told a Superintendent of Schools

that I had worked in Hollywood before getting my teacher's license, and it was easier to break into Hollywood. She nodded her head, but really what else could she say to that?

By far. I was just at a job fair with over 1000 teachers competing for spots with about 10 districts. Some of them had unmanned booths with a sign that said "not hiring." Other districts had 45-minute lines of applicants for 2-3 positions. About 2 hours into it, people started crying.

PS: I was just lucky enough to be offered a 5th grade class at a charter school. :)