A Jobs Sigh of Relief
A better stimulus plan: Have Congress adjourn until 2011.
The November jobs report was greeted yesterday with smiles and sighs of relief, which speaks volumes about how rotten the job market has been for a long time. Only 11,000 lost jobs! Praise heaven.
The report is hopeful if not yet happy news, in that it shows employment finally catching up with the economic recovery that has been building since the summer. Economic expansions always lead to some job creation, especially when the downturn and layoffs have been as steep as what the
The surprise so far has been how long it has taken the job market to come around—surprising especially to a White House that predicted a jobless rate peak of 8% if the $787 billion spending stimulus passed. President Obama called yesterday's report the best since 2007, which is true but is also like saying that this is the most tasteful season so far of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians."
The report's details suggest that job growth will finally arrive in future months. The average work week climbed to 33.2 hours from 33.0, which means more workers are being hired back to full-time status. The jobless rate—which is determined by the household survey, rather than the business establishment survey—fell to 10%, from 10.2%. And the household survey, which measures more small businesses and home entrepreneurs, showed a gain of 227,000 jobs. In the early stages of the 2003 recovery, this measure proved to be a better indicator of future job-market strength than did the lagging establishment report.
On the other hand, most of November's job gains were in services or government. If the stimulus spending has had any effect, it has been to preserve government jobs. Private hiring remains weak. Construction, manufacturing and business professionals are still shedding jobs. At more than 28 weeks, the average duration of unemployment is now longer than it has ever been, and overall employment is still down some 7.2 million from its 2007 peak.
The news of a better job market couldn't have come at a better time politically given that Congress seems ready to waste more money on more government job creation. The same folks who planned the last stimulus now want to spend a few hundred billion on public works jobs, more aid to states, and another round job of jobless benefits. In some states, workers can now get paid for 18 months for not working. This will give many of them an incentive to postpone a job search even as their hiring prospects improve.
Meanwhile, the White House is thinking about paying home owners to weatherize their homes. Cash for caulkers, we suppose. Now, that'll put millions back to work.
The real message of the November report is that the job market is healing on its own, if
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704342404574576203733082212.html
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Comment: From where I sit there is a severe shortage of jobs,
but to be objective a lot of it involves what people bring to the
situation in a jobless predicament. People need to learn better
literacy, including computer literacy; learn Internet navigation;
and in general improve their employability quotient so they will
raise the prospects of their getting employment. Plus, basic
language skills is a plus. According to mega-trends the emphasis
will be on nursing jobs, service jobs and other local level type
jobs. The ideal is to learn, network and be willing to be underpaid.
It sucks, but it is what it is.
Some folks I know are happy when they have a big bag of basic
recycling materials.
Venceremos Unidos! Education for Liberation!
Peter S. López, Jr. aka~Peta
HumanE-Liberation-Party
Email: peter.lopez51@yahoo.com
http://twitter.com/Peta51
c/s
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