This week’s sad news regarding the jobs market is: The most tragic news is Steve Jobs’ passing. He changed the worlds of music, personal computing, mobile computing and many other areas. In this world of imitation, his products were unique in their style and substance. What is the last time you saw so much of the world grieve over the loss of a CEO before?
We are more likely to see Wall Street executives and politicians pass away than to feel any sense of global grief. These people are more concerned with their personal wealth and the well-being of their friends than they actually care about helping the country or producing anything. They praise themselves for what they consider valuable and criticize those who doubt them.
The U.S. economy was strong in the first half decade of the last decade. Companies were making big profits. My industry, which saw companies purchase one promissory notice or multiple at once, also grew. Fortune 500 executives, among others, claimed all the credit for their companies’ successes and demanded higher salaries and bonuses. These same executives didn’t offer to pay back their bonuses or tie their salaries to lower performance figures when the businesses began to decline. This is the culture of style over substance that our society is moving towards.
The new jobs program, which was proposed by the administration and estimated at $447 billion, is a good example. Last month I wrote about how federal job training programs have cost billions and left little to be gained. Every economic recovery program that the Feds have launched in the last three years has failed, I would argue. Consider “cash for junk” or the Fed’s two quantitative easing programmes. Tell me how they did anything but waste billions of money.
https://seascapecapital.com/jobs/debt–and-ben–franklin img alt=”Paying promissory notes debt with this?” src=”https://seascapecapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Debt-and-Ben-Franklin-300×199.jpg” title=”Debt and Ben Franklin”/>
The President’s job program proposes to cut payroll taxes, extend unemployment benefits, give money to schools and increase spending on public works projects. Although this initiative might provide some relief for a small number of workers, it would not last and will only increase our debt. (Yes, I do know that he intends to tax the wealthy to pay for it, but that will not happen). It is unlikely that the program will see much political support. This seems to be purely political grandstanding for 2012 elections.
This doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t have more jobs. It just means that the government is less efficient than private enterprises at creating new jobs. The job picture is far worse than the 9.1% official unemployment rate. Economists were excited to see that September’s jobs report had 103,000 new jobs. Mish says that 45,000 were Verizon workers returning to work after a strike, while many others were service jobs with lower salaries. The economy lost 8.8 millions jobs between January 2008 & February 2010. The economy lost an average of 116,000 jobs per month in the year that was the weakest. 16.5% is the real unemployment rate. This includes part-timers who want to work full-time, and longer-term unemployed. The average hourly wage has increased by 1.9% over the past twelve months while the urban consumer price index was up 3.8%. Even those with jobs aren’t keeping up to inflation.
It is not easy to improve the job market. Employers worried about the future would benefit from stability if the country had a lower national debt. The process won’t be quick or easy, so it will take time and pain. Individuals need to save as much money as possible so they have a reserve fund in case of an emergency.