11 Reasons Why the Unemployment Crisis Is Even Worse Than You Think

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.alternet.org/story/152401/11_reasons_why_the_unemployment_crisis_is_even_worse_than_you_think?page=entire

President Obama recently addressed the nation during a joint session of Congress and the main theme of that address was the need to create jobs, lots of jobs, millions of jobs. The Great Recession has cost US workers millions of jobs and those jobs have not come back as quickly as they disappeared and in many cases those jobs will never return. According to the Economic Policy Institute, “In total, there are 6.9 million fewer jobs today than there were in December 2007.”

That is only a small part of the jobs-hole story, a story that is often ignored, overlooked and oversimplified by mass media.

The media has failed to present the unemployment problem, with all its associated economically devastating consequences, in the manner it deserves. It’s possible that unemployment facts and figures don’t translate well for advertisers, or they are too cumbersome to present in a two-minute segment. Whatever the reason, the mass media seem to avoid unemployment details as they would avoid describing and filming fresh road kill during a dinnertime newscast. While some excellent blogs clearly explain unemployment data, such as Mish’s Economic Trend Analysis, Calculated Risk and Economic Populist, mass media sites are absent.

:snip:

1. The jobs deficit: That is the total number of jobs lost PLUS jobs that should have been created since the recession began in December 2007; as mentioned above, there are 6.9 million fewer jobs today than at the start of the Great Recession, but that tells only half the tale of the jobs deficit. There is also the matter of creating jobs to keep up with the increase in workforce population. Those new workers include high school and college graduates, and immigrants. The number of jobs that need to be created each month to accommodate new entrants into the workforce ranges from 120,000 - 150,000. Adding together the jobs lost since the recession and the new jobs needed for population growth, the total jobs deficit is estimated to be 11.3 million. A few tax breaks, some targeted workforce retraining and some regulatory relief for businesses are not going to be the forces behind the creation of more than 11 million jobs. A massive effort is required to fill that gaping jobs hole.

More at the link --

[Auntie Bush]

1. I have no answers for you....No one seems to.

[truedelphi]

2. Thank you for posting this. K & R. n/t

[Marrah_G]

3. I have gone from one full time job to 2 part time jobs

One of them being minimum wage, ringing a register.

I used to make 36.5k at one job. Not alot for a single parent in MA.

Now I make 20k at one and 7k at the other job.

I suppose I now count for 2 jobs :(

Living the American dream.

Yeah, I am angry.

[obxhead]

4. Balance trade through tariffs.

We have to end this free trade (corporate right to export jobs) bullshit to have any chance of fixing our economy.

Every other tactic is pointless if we do not bring back fair trade policies.

[sad sally]

5. Here are some words from Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz in an interview

with Scott Pelley. Starbucks has over 200,000 employees, with more than half in the US (36,000 added this year). Notice he's not talking about adding more Starbucks-type positions, but recognizes the decimation of manufacturing jobs in America.

Too bad his idea of not buying politicians through campaign contributions and instead taking those millions and creating jobs doesn't seem to appeal to very many US companies.


Schultz: Well, right now you've got about a trillion dollars sitting on the balance sheets of public companies in America - a trillion dollars.

Pelley: This is cash they have on hand?

Schultz: Yeah probably record numbers of money in the last two, three decades. The question is why isn't that money being invested back in America which ultimately would produce jobs? And the only reason is because of the anxiety and the uncertainty that exists with regard to the political system.

One thing Schultz says Washington could do is support U.S. manufacturing - now shrunk to just nine million workers.

Schultz: Can you believe that? I mean, that's a stunning statistic. Now why? The reason is because everything we buy, everything we wear, everything we look at has a label on it that says made in China, made in Taiwan - made somewhere else.

Now I don't want America to become an isolationist, but I want to become proud again to encourage American manufacturing. Which means we're gonna have to give an incentive for small and large companies to buy capital equipment and small and large companies to make things. The manufacturing base of America, down to nine million jobs, is one of the singular problems of the loss of job creation in America. We have to get our manufacturing base back.

Pelley: Why has unemployment been around 9 percent and north of there for nearly two years straight?

Schultz: In my view, why unemployment has stayed over nine percent is linked directly to Washington, DC. When I examined the cost of what the election cycle was in 2008, which was more than $4 billion, and it's estimated to be in 2012, which is $5.5 billion is gonna be spent on congressional re-election and the presidential election. Just think about that - $5.5 billion when we have 9 percent unemployment in America. And people don't know where their next meal is coming from. The system is completely broken.

[neverforget]

6. My mother in law was laid off today after 25 years.

Really sucks.....

[Donnachaidh]

7. awww damn -- I hear ya!

DH worked for one company for over 16 years. They hit the skids because they hired some hotshot manager that literally let everyone who walked in the door and called themselves contractors have free credit -- lots of it.

The sales amounts this manager was *supposedly* generating were astounding -- and total bullshit because they were NOT paid for. This company had been one of the top 5 Georgia companies to work for. And one jerk brought them down. ONE idiot.

Losing a job after all those years you find yourself grieving, almost as if it's a family loss. It's frigging devastating. I sincerely hope your MIL is okay. Words cannot express the rage I feel with every story like this I hear.

:hug:

[neverforget]

8. Thank you for the kind words. She worked for a realtor group and they

have been going through cuts for a few years now. However, it was the suddenness of the layoff that was a shock. There was no heads up at all. The housing market really sucks here in Portland and I don't expect it to rebound for a long time.