Mort Zuckerman: Jobs Situation Worse Than it Looks

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

This article comes just ahead of the Labor Department's release of last week's jobs report which shows a jump in jobless claims to 429,000:

www.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2011/06/20/why-the-jobs-situation-is-worse-than-it-looks

The Great Recession has now earned the dubious right of being compared to the Great Depression. In the face of the most stimulative fiscal and monetary policies in our history, we have experienced the loss of over 7 million jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off from full-time employment.

The real job losses are greater than the estimate of 7.5 million. They are closer to 10.5 million, as 3 million people have stopped looking for work. Equally troublesome is the lower labor participation rate; some 5 million jobs have vanished from manufacturing, long America's greatest strength. Just think: Total payrolls today amount to 131 million, but this figure is lower than it was at the beginning of the year 2000, even though our population has grown by nearly 30 million.

The most recent statistics are unsettling and dismaying, despite the increase of 54,000 jobs in the May numbers. Nonagricultural full-time employment actually fell by 142,000, on top of the 291,000 decline the preceding month. Half of the new jobs created are in temporary help agencies, as firms resist hiring full-time workers.

Today, over 14 million people are unemployed. We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression. Nearly seven people in the labor pool compete for every job opening. Hiring announcements have plunged to 10,248 in May, down from 59,648 in April. Hiring is now 17 percent lower than the lowest level in the 2001-02 downturn.

One fifth of all men of prime working age are not getting up and going to work. Equally disturbing is that the number of people unemployed for six months or longer grew 361,000 to 6.2 million, increasing their share of the unemployed to 45.1 percent. We face the specter that long-term unemployment is becoming structural and not just cyclical, raising the risk that the jobless will lose their skills and become permanently unemployable.

Don't pay too much attention to the headline unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. It is scary enough, but it is a gloss on the reality. These numbers do not include the millions who have stopped looking for a job or who are working part time but would work full time if a position were available. And they count only those people who have actively applied for a job within the last four weeks.

Include those others and the real number is a nasty 16 percent. The 16 percent includes 8.5 million part-timers who want to work full time (which is double the historical norm) and those who have applied for a job within the last six months, including many of the long-term unemployed. And this 16 percent does not take into account the discouraged workers who have left the labor force. The fact is that the longer duration of six months is the more relevant testing period since the mean duration of unemployment is now 39.7 weeks, an increase from 37.1 weeks in February.

[Value Buy]

Could this possibly lead to more illegal aliens actually migrating back home?

[Value Buy]

I figured it out!
Obama knew he could not force the illegal issue to a proper conclusion, with the result being illegal aliens would have to go home.
His decision?
Continue to destroy the country's business climate, and the illegals will go home on their own accord, and then he can easily install the Socialist agenda in America, because the few people left here will clutch to any floating raft available.

[handyman2]

The government paints a much rosier picture than this but the people out in the battle zone are well aware it was a lot of bull.
All you have to do is look at the shrinking help wanted ads in the major news papers to see what the truth is. Makes one wonder how long the government is going to try to hide the true facts.
Major employers are shutting down businesses every day and it seems to be accelerating. I wonder how long our economy can stand up to the strain.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Obama send undocumented Democrats 'home'? Ha!

[Value Buy]

Jun 23, 2011 8:46:37 GMT -5 handyman2 said:

The government paints a much rosier picture than this but the people out in the battle zone are well aware it was a lot of bull.
All you have to do is look at the shrinking help wanted ads in the major news papers to see what the truth is. Makes one wonder how long the government is going to try to hide the true facts.
Major employers are shutting down businesses every day and it seems to be accelerating. I wonder how long our economy can stand up to the strain.

What "help wanted" ads? They are gone. Same with the real estate listings. All that are left, are ads claiming " BEHIND ON PAYMENTS? I WILL BUY YOUR PROPERTY" ads.

[handyman2]

Obama will do what he can to keep the illegals here until after the 2012 elections. he needs their votes. That is why he will carry California.

[Mkitty is pro kitty]

Any sign of Boehner and Co. putting in jobs! jobs! jobs! legislation? Oh right, just say "so be it," and have an emergency NPR meeting. So you, know Republicans want to lead without taking any responsibility. Or you know, they'll keep sabotaging the United States to do anything to make Obama a one term President.

Could this possibly lead to more illegal aliens actually migrating back home?

They have been for a while. That's okay, we know you have a drum to beat and who cares if it's out of tune to reality?

[Value Buy]

Jun 23, 2011 9:16:08 GMT -5 Mkitty is pro kitty said:

Any sign of Boehner and Co. putting in jobs! jobs! jobs! legislation? Oh right, just say "so be it," and have an emergency NPR meeting. So you, know Republicans want to lead without taking any responsibility. Or you know, they'll keep sabotaging the United States to do anything to make Obama a one term President.

Could this possibly lead to more illegal aliens actually migrating back home?

They have been for a while. That's okay, we know you have a drum to beat and who cares if it's out of tune to reality?

A drum to beat?
Ok. They are illegal.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
Sounds in tune to me.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jun 23, 2011 9:16:08 GMT -5 Mkitty is pro kitty said:

Any sign of Boehner and Co. putting in jobs! jobs! jobs! legislation? Oh right, just say "so be it," and have an emergency NPR meeting. So you, know Republicans want to lead without taking any responsibility. Or you know, they'll keep sabotaging the United States to do anything to make Obama a one term President.

Could this possibly lead to more illegal aliens actually migrating back home?

They have been for a while. That's okay, we know you have a drum to beat and who cares if it's out of tune to reality?

Government doesn't "legislate" jobs. All government can do is get in the way, or get out of the way. Unfortunately, control of one legislative body is not enough to get Democrats out of the way.

[Bluerobin]

Jun 23, 2011 8:36:35 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

Could this possibly lead to more illegal aliens actually migrating back home?

We can only hope so! Barry and his ilk still want amnesty. We all know how well that worked last time.

[Deleted]

Get rid of illegals?? That's a joke. You guys saw Been There's dream Act thread, I assume?? Illegals aren't going anywhere until they kill someone, then they go to prison.. on our $$$$$.

This is just great!! I'm getting well now and within weeks of trying to get a job.. 55 YO, no college degree, competing with how many unemployed 25 YOs?? Yeah, right. I feel sorry for my kids, who are stuck with me until I can find a job. Very upsetting after a lifetime of hard work and independence. So strange how you go out in public and things LOOK normal, people buying gas, groceries.... but things are not normal at all. Probably a lot of those unhappy looking people I see out there are in positions similar to mine, making it through this month, unsure about next month. The official numbers lie. The unofficial numbers are the accurate ones.