Labor Market Forum 08-10
How do you see the state of the labor market? Are jobs really that hard to find and get, or is the situation exaggerated for political purposes?Last week produced the Employment Situation Report for the month of July, and the report showed the unemployment rate stuck at a high level of 9.5%. Do you agree with the view of some politicians, mostly on the Republican side of the table, that the availability of employment insurance extensions are keeping some people from looking for jobs? Should these essential benefits be cut?
I personally know people who have chosen to stay on unemployment rather than take a new job or part-time work that would reward them only marginally, while placing them at risk of not qualifying for unemployment benefits again should they lose their part-time employment. If benefit extensions are keeping some Americans from looking harder for work, which is not the intended purpose, what would you suggest to help spur labor market participation? Is stopping unemployment benefits really a viable solution, or would that only force more foreclosures, tighten money belts even further, and drive a deeper recession? While I'm sure there are a handful of folks exploiting the situation, I view them as clear outliers. I believe it would be a major mistake to cut off unemployment benefits now. People without jobs would be forced to the welfare program, where income would be less than one-quarter of what they get from unemployment benefits.
Of course, the situation is not black and white, and there are surely a significantly higher majority of hard working, honest Americans who would gladly trade in their unemployment for a steady job. The Weekly Jobless Claims figures, ADP Private Employment Report and the Labor Department's Employment Report verify that companies are simply not hiring in a significant way. This favoritism toward cautious corporate investment is in turn affected by light consumer spending and less than optimal export demand. The President's efforts to spur small business hiring by offering tax incentives has not targeted the problem properly, because who would hire without revenues to justify the investment? What should the Administration do?
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Labels: Debate Topics, Labor Market
posted by The Greek | 10:10 AM
4 Comments:
I am 55, was unemployed for many, many, many months before I was hired nearly a year ago. I sent out hundreds and hundreds of resumes, responded to every conceivable job opening and only won three interviews. I am energetic, smart, physically fit and have an upbeat attitude, but my age got in the way of several potential positions. I did work some temporary positions, but no offers came of those. When I ran out of unemployment benefits and was eligible for an extension, working those temp jobs cost me money. The way my state calculates unemployment is based on the past 15 months of employment history. A few jobs took me from receiving $324 per week to the minimum of $112 or so. We very nearly went bankrupt before I was offered a job at $13 per hour. We're barely making it financially now, but at least I'm working and receiving benefits.
I played golf (public course in PA) with a young guy about 30-35 who is an unemployed steam fitter with x-ray certification. First time he has been out of work, but getting good benefits (for how long I don't know).
I am retired, 68 and have seen my wealth hammered by events I could not imagine over the past decade (2001 to 2010).
Many years ago as I began to see
the 'productivity benefits' from the evolution of technology I wondered how this 'benefit' would affect workers. I could only imagine that having a job for the average guy would become more and more difficult.
I was in the graphic arts industry in NYC and saw it go from Gutenberg to Gates in a short period of time, wiping out several industries that employed a lot of folks in the big Apple.
Right now I see that my fears were justified and that my intuition was on target. Fewer jobs due to 'productivity enhancement'. Sort of like viagra for corporations and arsenic for workers.
10% plus unemployment, get used to it.
I live in rural southwest Virginia. I am friends with the manager of a couple of local McDonald's. He said he gets applications from people with 4 year degree's who are desperate for anything because their unemployment has run out. I retired from the Virgina DOT due to downsizing. I had 5 job offers based on my skill set but that's not the norm. The VDOT advertised 20 call center positions in Salem, Virginia and had 800 applicants for entry level jobs. These jobs did have all normal state benefits such as insurance so that was the attraction.
Thank you for your comments. Your responses show that the situation is not being addressed properly by the current law. Nobody should see benefits cut to a third because they went out and found a temporary part time job and then lost it. That simply makes no sense.
And what about those people who lost their jobs before the threshold date to qualify for government extensions. Nobody is talking about them. They've probably gone on welfare, lost their homes and are now wards of the government. Is that fair?
How many McDonalds locations are hiring college grads, or would they rather not hire someone who is likely to leave once he gets better work? I'm guessing these folks are falling into the "overqualified" crap hole.
The first message I see from these results is that unemployment extensions cannot be cut off.
Secondly, it's clear the method of calculation needs some tweeking to keeping honest hard working Americans from getting the short end of the stick.
Thirdly, we need to think of a way to give the unemployed incentive to get off unemployment, and the way it's set up now, it's just too risky to take a part-time job. We are only hurting the situation by not addressing it properly.
Nikos Kazantakis' fictional character "Zorba" said something about the world and its addressing of problems in half-assed fashion. He said a "half-devil" is worse than a devil, and you can see his quote via the link "Inspirational Quotes" in the WSG Classics section of the blog.
Thank you for your responses, and keep em coming. We need to address this issue properly to ensure our representatives address it.
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