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This morning (Sunday, April 8) I was at the laundromat here in beautiful downtown Ruskin, FL and picked up a copy of the local, Tampa area Jobs Finder free newspaper. I’m sure most all of you have seen these free papers for your local area.
As I skimmed this paper, it reinforced for me that there is no economic recovery, at least not in this part of Florida. When I picked the paper up, I noticed it was awfully skinny so I counted pages. Eight whole pages. With large ads covering each page so I counted up all the ads. Thirty-nine ads for 8 pages. Then I looked even closer. Two ads were for the paper itself. Another two ads were for “start your own cleaning company” services. Then I counted nineteen ads for various types of training programs. Not for jobs. For for-profit training programs that might, maybe, if you can afford it and complete it, maybe get you a minimum wage job if you can survive to complete the six month to a year plus training program being offered.
No ads for local delivery drivers. No handyman type ads. No manual labor/construction service ads. No help wanted for local businesses and restaurants. No ads for jobs for any of the thousands of job types one usually sees in these types of free newspapers.
Now granted, this is obviously anecdotal but I would wager that in a lot of parts of the country, this is the current norm. It isn’t much better with the ads on Craigslist or Monster or other online job search services. One of the metrics I use to check for job market improvements is the number of job ads from body shop/consulting services/head hunter agencies versus the number of ads from employers directly. My WAG is that the former ads are running nearly 10 to 1 over the latter. Businesses that are hiring directly are still able to be extremely picky about who they interview and hire.
But I guess we are not to worry. Everything must be getting better since the Beltway Village Idiots Pundits and Politicians seem to be in full pearl clutching mode after DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz went on CNN this morning and accused the Republicans of rooting for the economy to fail. Oh the horror of it all. Too bad that it seems to be beneficial to both parties to have the economy in doldrums. They all seem to forget that the 25M to 30M long term un and underemployed are each and every one, living, breathing, feeling human beings and not just statistics on the page full of numbers
And because I can:
Cross posted from Just A Small Town Country Boy by Richard Taylor
37 Comments
Recommended.
Very pertinent observations.
It is disturbing to think that these conditions are by design…but all evidence points to it.
The working class is backed thoroughly against the wall; we MUST get some folks into government who will fight for us and not sell us out.
Authentic public servants sure as hell aren’t going to come from the RETHUGS and I can count on one hand the number of Democrats I believe are for real.
Third party progressive all the way for me.
Yes, online is full of “13 week travel position” ads. And the “top ten hiring” articles are so full of crap, the comments tell the truth “radiology, ha, so many experienced radiologists are out of work” and those articles point to training schools. There’s no recovery, just like there’s no “best health care” or “richest country” anymore if it ever was. A country built by slaves, mistreated immigrants, why expect anything different. And now police brutality exposed for all the world to see, and now people’s naked bodies for TSAers and jailers. It’s pretty disgusting how every day brings a new outrage. Democrats? Not the same as I used to believe they were. No more voting for them from me. But they don’t give a shit, there’s a lock on the voting machine results.
On this Easter Sunday, I raise a glass and a prayer for all the physical Occupiers and their supporters who can’t be out there in person.
Anecdotal? Maybe, but in our neighborhood we have the same anecdotes. One of my wife’s girlfriends lost her job seven months ago, and she has had a grand total of ONE interview during that time, which was swiftly followed by the FU letter.
And she went to one of those for-profit schools, went at least 20K in debt, and for what?
Recovery, my ass. Recc’d.
Repuplican-compradors can’t get no respect. They profit more from what capital wants them to do. FDR saved capitalism from itself when he should have saved us from it.
Ah, plausible deniability is what the anarchy of capitalism’s all about.
Good God, can you imagine the orgy of Law and Order bullshit we’d be getting if the American People did what needs be done?
Are we now living in an alternate universe? I almost fell out of my chair this morning when George Will stated on “This Week” that 120,000 jobs are barely enough to keep up with the population, and not enough for the millions (I think he said around 5.x million) jobs that were lost and haven’t come back.
on the other hand CONGRESSCRITTERs are getting rich off their jobs
http://www.investinganswers.com/personal-finance/rich-famous/5-financial-perks-congress-you-wont-believe-are-legal-3819
we need to stop their perks
Why stop their perks? There’s still social security, Medicaid, Medicare, Unemployment Insurance and Food Stamp programs that can be raided to keep our elite “representatives” able to maintain their lifestyles. What they don’t seem to recognize, yet, is when they give the truly elite–you know those wealthy job creators–all the deregulation and tax cuts they want, what function will they then be able to provide. I think the wizard behind the curtain is cranking like mad . . . but the curtain is slowly being removed.
yep
One of the first things that needs to happen is a rollback of Congressional perks.
Average Americans shouldn’t be asked to tighten their belts until LEADERSHIP in this country goes first.
I’d also propose that we build a barracks in DC and make them all geographical bachelors. Then I suggest that we pay them no more than 10% above the median wage of those they represent. No more $160,000 a year when you represent people living on less than $40,000. We’ll see how fast they are to diss those at the bottom when their own pay is tied to how everyone in their district is doing, including those at the bottom.
Will is a big arsehole, but he is actually right about that. Do you mean you almost fell out of your chair because he actually told the truth, at least about that one little thing, for once?
The private sector has right-sized itself following the first phase of this depression. That is actually not a bad thing. Government at all levels (other than the military, of course) has been downsized. The economy is now functioning at a lower level of employment. The labor participation rate has dropped from 66.2% in Jan 2008 to 63.8% in Mar 2012.
We can’t expect the private sector to create jobs when there is no additional demand. Jobs first, then paychecks, then demand, then private sector expansion.
You can’t solve this by throwing money at the private sector, in subsidies or bridges to nowhere or tax cuts or profit repatriation holidays.
There are three ways to address this: remove people from the labor force through early retirement (specifically reducing the age of eligibility for Social Security and Medicare, as well as increasing SS benefits), reduce the work week to 32 hours and spread the available work among the available workers, and expansion of government payrolls.
Sound familiar? Classic New Deal solutions. Tried, tested, known to work. And I think I can count the New Dealers in Washington on one hand.
Reducing the workweek will only work if you increase the wages. As it stands right now we have a cadre of underemployed working less than a 40 hour work week.
I do like the idea of increasing the number of those retiring. As it stands right now though the morons in DC are discussing moving in the other direction because God forbid the Koch brothers have to pay more money into a government they can’t stand. *rolling eyes*
and the few journalists who are still employed as journalists are writing the story. You know how should be writing the stories? The journalists who were laid off so that he Newspaper management could get their bonuses while they still have their head up their asses about how to make a product that is valuable.
Thanks for this recc’ed
Ya really mean one finger… just sayen…
Increasing wages is best, of course. But even taking the available payroll and spreading it out to everyone in need of work is a great first step. Driving wages up in the private sector is a long, involved process which really can’t get started until the unemployment rate drops (or more accurately, that the labor participation rate goes up). You need to promote unionization, restrict legal and illegal immigration, extract yourself from free trade agreements and impose import tariffs (“Bring the Jobs Home”). Productivity has grown for decades, but real per capita compensation has dropped. Every facet of free market fundamentalism acts to restrict wages and concentrate wealth.
I am so pleased to see you making this an issue here at FDL. I think this is the issue of our time. We now have four years of really high under/unemployment and no one, I mean no one, seems to care. I was very saddened to see that even James Galbraith does not appear really committed to bringing back jobs.
What in the world creates inequality? NO jobs result in bidding pay down to poverty levels. People will work for anything to keep food on the table and pay the rent. And then there is almost nothing left. That will not sustain a recovery. Is there any politician who thinks this is a big deal or have we become so used to unemployment we just forget the cancer it is? What has happened to the middle class?
That’s my question as well: there are no effing jobs out there (which is especially poigniant to me at the moment, as the Los Angeles Unified School District, eager to pour money into charter schools, is hell-bent on getting rid of the division in which I teach).
But the corporate media says there’s a recovery and, as I’m a loyal and patriotic American, I say, “God bless our recovery, and anyone who disagrees with me is a terrorist or, worse, doesn’t love our President, who has such a heart-warming life story.”
The federal government, as employer of last resort, or what some MMT people call a job guarantee could be used to put everyone to work. Oh I know, the environment is too toxic. True enough but something needs to be done. My goodness there are millions of jobs that could be done. Call it the modern day WPA. Someone, somewhere needs to start fighting for it. There is no reason why it cannot be done except that the plutocrats don’t want it.
Do you really think FDR would sit around on his ass and do nothing about this situation? Do you think he would be looking for a broad bi partisan agreement on cutting spending? Really? Or do you think he would be calling them out every fucking day? Progressives should be populist. We want jobs, and we want it now. So FU Debbie Wasserman Shultz. Four years is too long.
There are indeed millions of jobs that could be done. Not just repair and construction (which are sorely needed), but environmental restoration projects, expansion of educational opportunities from kindergarden through grad school and the trades, single-payer health insurance, expansion of rural health care (perhaps with subsidies to encourage professionals to locate there), transferring the generation and distribution of energy into the public sector (and shutting down dirty sources), creation of a renewable-powered rail system that will take up the slack as we phase out fossil fuel transportation, supporting sustainable agriculture, paying people to write open-source software.
This all costs money. While I am not in the camp of thinking that our current deficits are a particularly pressing problem, we can’t just tack another $trillion per year onto spending without raising some revenue. Taxes. Our current tax rates are unsupportably low. Low tax rates distort the economy in myriad ways.
Well, it is productive work. What is the cost to hire say fifteen million people to do those jobs at 20k per year? And when aggregate demand picks up what will be the tax pay back? And when demand picks up those people can leave the government job and take a higher paying job in the private sector. We may be able to break the cycle of bidding jobs at lower pay.
I don’t know if this will work but the cost does not seem to be in the trillions. We are already paying around seven million people to do nothing, plus welfare.
I agree I am fishing here to find a way out of this mess. I think we will find a one off inflation boost from it though, since wages will go up in the private sector as they compete for labor from the government job effort.
Here in NYC, the unemployment rate isn’t as high as the rest of the country, but for every new business I see going up, I see several more close down, and it’s taking forever for new ones to take their place, if they do at all. Lots of empty store fronts.
“Economic indictators” and “experts” say we’re in a recovery, but my intuition says bullshit. I’ll trust my intuition on this one.
Bluedot, I believe you see the only transformative answer. We are in better shape than in April, ’09, but there is still ‘high water all around.” Innovative thinking is the only way out.
As a nation we have spent literally TRILLIONS in the last twelve years on the military adventures designed by a small group of ideologues in the ’90′s. It is time we divert that expenditure to projects that improve the domestic condition, Our electric grid dates from the 1950′s, as do our highways. Eisenhower envisioned a national system to exceed the German Autobahn. The AEC envisioned a power grid that would deliver the new nuclear energy that would be, “Too cheap to meter.” (I kid you not). Ask any old-timer about the “all-electric home” campaign.
Despite what the GOP says on the Sunday talk shows, the President does not create jobs. Nor does Congress. Nor do tax breaks for millionaire donors.
Demand creates jobs. Econ 101. If we create demand, we will create jobs. For the working class, which now has absorbed the middle class, income allows for demand. Everyone wants a good meal three times a day. Only income allows for that to become a demand. If you have the money, you WILL buy food. Stores, truckers, warehouses and farmers will benefit.
If the money spent supporting warlords and defense contractors were spent across the nation upgrading power grids and restoring collapsing
bridges, tens of thousands of American workers could be employed. The range would be from engineers and accountants to people just swinging an axe clearing brush.
Urban Portland is picking up a bit. Urban Portland alternative types dived head first into the bike craze, and that real local creation of capital activity is starting to flow through the whole local economy
There a lot of new bicycle manufacturing related start ups. Custom bike builders. Custom bike components. Bike repair shops. Homemade bike accessories. Bike clothes. Lots of places to throw money at bikes in this town now.
1%er can really throw some serious money at some bicycles, if they choose to.
DK, ya nailed it regarding local rags, internet sites such as Career Builder, temp agencies and more.
Ya just nailed it.
There ARE no jobs, and the few that are there, are still stealing employees from other companies or newly unemployed within a month or so.
Those without jobs for 3 months, are simply dismissed, by all.
N dawg forbid if yer a year or two, or in and out for 5 years, being unemployed . . .
Great read, spot on and yes, this shit’s goin to hayall unless a buncha millions of us (50 million I reckon) get sustainable jobs.
Without these jobs that could be easily created by the government like FDR did, shit’s gonna hit the fan . . . n that’s why the domestic abuse of civil rights on all counts, methinks.
Ugly.
*bows*
Yep.
I think it’s a waste to vote anymore, but I will.
This system is dying and my vote don’t matter.
But I’ll vote till my dying day on principle alone.
Not for the uniparty.
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, 99% of all jobs ads are come ons for extended training paid out of OUR pockets . . . in other words, people out of work going into debt to think they can find a job . . . but there ARE no jobs.
N the one’s that are, are filled by those who HAVE jobs.
No one new or unemployed is added to the roles that I know of (generally speaking).
Here is ugly decaying Atlantic City unemployment is around 15%. We just had an opening of a new mega-casino in a market where 40% of demand is gone. This is the crazy shit happening here. It’s very possible this new unneeded Casino REVEL could end up putting 2 or 3 other local Casinos out of business by fall. The result would be at the cost of as many as 12K lost jobs if they close. Add the 5K new jobs @ Revel and we might end up with a net loss of 7K jobs and get this REVEL is 1 billion in debt already , plus Gov. Christie has kicked in 250 mil. of taxpayer $$ to boot as tax abatement s for this place. His wife is a big time Wall st. broker and you can bet she’s involved up to eyeballs in the place somehow. Anyway, that’s what passes for development here these days. The rest of AC looks like a third world country.
Oh, let me add that Debbie Wasserman Shitz is the worst of all capitalists working for the 1% and not for we the people.
So, don’t vote for her, if ya can . . . please. Piece of shit DNC centrist 1%er . . . *retch*
“All the way up, Coach, with a red hot poker!”
*G*
Robbie Benson, an old basketball movie . . .
Bullshit on revenue dependent jobs creation.
We print out own phreakin money . . . the Fed.
Print it, throw it at jobs creation, watch the tax coffers flow and fill.
On this we might just disagree . . . . but I have FDR and history to lean back on. Know yer on the same side but . . . .
Just do it!!!
;-)
Wait…what? Giving free money to people isn’t bringing jobs like Krugman promised?
Heh.
This is an abandonment of the unemployed who are still trying to find work through retraining:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/business/economy/federal-funds-to-train-jobless-are-drying-up.html?
Economists advocating MMT theory talk about how there are not enough jobs, and how we need to create jobs through government intervention/job creation instead of waiting for markets; markets which only respond to reduced demand by ditching employees.
On Guns and Butter radio program:
http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/79111
Your Ruskin/Tampa area has been hard hit – housing values down 60% still from 2006, jobs from major players like AC Nielsen/Nielsen leaving the area via outsourcing (Nielsen took the tax money and tax breaks and in return promised more jobs – then outsourced to India a couple of thousand programing jobs with the new British owners continuing the outsourcing, now to Mexico and indeed any country with lower wages, refusing to pay back the subsidy/tax break, and Tampa refusing to go after them lest they take the remaining few hundred jobs out of the area).
You have to love the current protections anything “corporate” now has in America.
What used to be called “union busting” is, now that unions have been more or less busted with no reaction by workers, now called forcing corrections to labor structure and adjusting wages to be competitive – meaning the rich making the rest a bit poorer so they can have more.
“Your bonus will be you get to keep your job” – the thought of the Reagan years in the boardrooms – has now been modified to “to keep your job but at a lower wage”. And our politicians go along because they fear the threat to “take the jobs away” – a reality that is the result of corporate personhood expansion in our Court System.
I am not sure how MMT’s WPA like job guarantee really helps improve the economic situation for the 99% relative to the 1% beyond the mere fact of having a job is better than not having one.
Uh the last time free money was given to people was during the Bush admin so I’m not sure what you are smoking and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Krugman(who actually wanted a controlled government spending project rather than a checks for everyone project)who was the driving force behind the idea.
We already have underemployment. The wages are problematic particularly with inflationary pressure.