Category: Employment
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Saturday, October 09, 2010
September Employment Situation Data Reinforces Expectations of QE2 on November 3rd / Economics / Employment
Civilian Unemployment Rate: 9.6% in September, virtually steady for four straight months. The unemployment rate was 5.0% in December 2007 when the recession commenced. Cycle high for recession is 10.1% in October 2009 and the cycle low for the expansion that ended in December 2007 is 4.4% in March 2007.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, September 20, 2010
U.S. Unemployment, Where are the Jobs? / Politics / Employment
Most Americans don't really care about the economic minutiae that many of us who study the U.S. economy love to pour over. When it comes to the economy, the typical American citizen just wants to be able to get a good job, make a decent living and put bread on the table for the family. For generations, this arrangement has worked out quite well. The U.S. economy has provided large numbers of middle class jobs and the American people have worked hard and have helped this nation prosper like no other. But now people are starting to notice that something has shifted. Millions of people are looking around and are realizing that the jobs that are supposed to be there are not there anymore.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Non Farm Payrolls: The Devil Is In the Adjustments / Economics / Employment
When the US government announced a 'better than expected' headline growth number in its non farm payrolls report for August, a loss of 'only' 54,000 jobs versus a forecasted loss of 120,000 jobs, people had to wonder, 'How do they do it? We do not see any of this growth and recovery in our day to day activity.'
Here's one way that those reporting the numbers can 'tinker' with them to produce the desired results.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
More Economic Stimulus to Fix Unemployment? / Economics / Employment
In a recent WSJ article titled “Romer Calls for More Stimulus” Romer stated that the government has the tools to fix unemployment and that we need more stimulus.
Another article in Yahoo quoted her stating that the government must lower taxes.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, August 22, 2010
This Is Why There Are No Jobs in America / Economics / Employment
Porter Stansberry writes: I'd like to make you a business offer.
Seriously. This is a real offer. In fact, you really can't turn me down, as you'll come to understand in a moment...
Friday, August 20, 2010
Small Businesses are Not Hiring - Why Should They? / Economics / Employment
In response to Creating Jobs Carries a Punishing Price, an article about Mr. Fleischer, president of Bogen Communications Inc. and why he is not hiring, I received an interesting email from "David" a reader who disagrees with Mr. Fleischer's stated reasons for not hiring.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 16, 2010
U.S. Military is America's Only Major Jobs Program / Politics / Employment
Robert Reich writes: Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty; another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the military with everything from weapons to utensils. (I’m not even including all the foreign contractors employing non-US citizens.)
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Why U.S. Jobs Have Gone AWOL / Economics / Employment
There are three primary reasons why the US is suffering from structurally high unemployment: a pervasively irresponsible monetary policy, the continued attenuation of our manufacturing base, and an overleveraged consumer who must now reconcile his balance sheet. In reality, the latter two conditions are a direct result of the first. They are the result of a government that seeks to micromanage the cost of money and the rate of economic growth.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, August 07, 2010
U.S. July Employment Situation, Lackluster Private Sector Job Growth Once Again / Economics / Employment
Civilian Unemployment Rate: 9.5% in July, no change from June's reading. The unemployment rate was 5.0% in December 2007 when the recession commenced. Cycle high for recession is 10.1% in October 2009 and the cycle low for the expansion that ended in December 2007 is 4.4% in March 2007.
Payroll Employment: -131,000 in July vs. -221,000 in June, net loss of 95,000 jobs after revisions of payroll estimates for May and June. Private sector payrolls rose 71,000 after a downwardly revised gain of 31,000 in June.
Friday, August 06, 2010
U.S. Dismal Jobs Picture, the Fed’s Misguided Money Printing Medicine / Economics / Employment
Can we just stop sugarcoating the issue? Dispense with the happy talk? Instead, let’s cut to the chase here: This job market sucks. Plain and simple.
By this stage in a true economic recovery, the country would be creating hundreds of thousands of jobs — month in and month out. But we aren’t. Not by a long shot!
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, August 05, 2010
U.S. Employment Data ADP vs. BLS Job Reports, Who to Believe? / Economics / Employment
The ADP July National Employment report is out. Let's take a look.
Read full article... Read full article...Private sector employment increased by 42,000 from June to July on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report® released today.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
How to Look for a Job / Politics / Employment
Unemployment is stuck in a rut. One reason is the tendency to look backwards. Trillions of dollars have been spent (with no end in sight) to bail out financial institutions, homebuilders, and failing industries. The federal government is spending $787 billion on a rejuvenation plan: ARRA - the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In the bill, $500 million is sequestered to metamorphose former credit-default swap salesmen into nurses and public health workers. Assuming the government wastes half of that money filling a new bureaucracy to administer the training, that still will be a lot of new nurses.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 02, 2010
Naked Capitalism Temporary Insanity Defending Unions, Blog Wars? / Economics / Employment
I remain in awe of how people who can think clearly most of the time, occasionally stray off the deep end defending socialist idiocy. This is one of those times.
For some inexplicable reason Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has chosen to re-post Summer Rerun: Debunking the Notion that Unions Hurt Productivity
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Wages and Subsistence / Economics / Employment
The life of primitive man was an unceasing struggle against the scantiness of the nature-given means for his sustenance. In this desperate effort to secure bare survival, many individuals and whole families, tribes, and races succumbed. Primitive man was always haunted by the specter of death from starvation. Civilization has freed us from these perils. Human life is menaced day and night by innumerable dangers; it can be destroyed at any instant by natural forces which are beyond control or at least cannot be controlled at the present stage of our knowledge and our potentialities. But the horror of starvation no longer terrifies people living in a capitalist society. He who is able to work earns much more than is needed for bare sustenance.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Green Jobs from the Government Not Gonna Happen / Politics / Employment
"Green Jobs Don't Exist in a Free Market" was the headline for Tom DeWeese, writing at NewsWithViews.com, which is exactly right; the only jobs that exist in a free market are those supplying real demand for, as an example, hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken and tacos, which has resulted in fast-food restaurants supplying them to be located on, seemingly, every other block in the Whole Freaking Country (WFC).
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Job Creation versus Job Destruction / Economics / Employment
We all want to see more jobs. As soon as possible and for everyone that wants a job. And even though I have touched on this subject before, it is an important topic that needs further attention.
At both the public and private levels, the talk is about “jobs” and doing “everything we can to create jobs” but the great tragedy is that federal economic policy makers (and many state level economic policy makers) simply don’t understand how to create jobs and are in fact enacting policies that destroy jobs. The reason why these policy makers are harming job creation and spurring on job destruction is really quite simple:
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 19, 2010
Real Jobs vs Fake Jobs / Economics / Employment
In many ways, the unemployment numbers are much worse than they appear. One factor has been the timing of the US census. The bureau hired some 700,000 workers to collect data — people who otherwise were having a very difficult time navigating the choppy labor markets. They went for the jobs because they were a sure thing, paid decently, and didn't require unusual skills (anyone can knock on a door and pester people about their private lives).
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Time to Hit the Reset Button on Life / Personal_Finance / Employment
Dr. Steve Sjuggerud writes: "We're going to have to write a big check to get out of our house," a friend told me over the Fourth of July weekend.
He's moving far away from here.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Young People Should Work for Free / Politics / Employment
With young people nearly shut out of the market (by recession, regulation, "child" labor laws, and ghastly minimum wage laws), I would like to suggest the unthinkable: young people should work for free wherever they can and whenever they can. The reason is to acquire a good reputation and earn a good recommendation. A person who will give you a positive reference on demand is worth gold, and certainly far more than the money you might otherwise earn.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Labor Market Dynamics, Defending the Rate Buster / Politics / Employment
Walter Block writes: The scene is familiar from hundreds of movies featuring labor themes: the young eager worker comes to the factory for the first time, determined to be a productive worker. In his enthusiasm, he happily produces more than the other workers who have been at the factory many years, and who are tired, stooped, and arthritic. He is a "rate buster."
Read full article... Read full article...