The Real News on Jobs

[IDemo]

Robert Reich
Posted: March 4, 2011 01:42 PM

Are we making progress on the jobs front? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 192,000 new jobs in February (220,000 new jobs in the private sector and a drop in government employment), and a drop in the overall unemployment rate from 9 to 8.9 percent.

We're heading in the right direction but far too slowly to make a real dent in unemployment. To get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent by 2014 we'd need over 300,000 new jobs a month, every month, between now and then.

Overall, the number of unemployed Americans -- 13.7 million -- is about the same as it was last month. The number working part time who'd rather be working full time -- 8.3 million -- is also about the same.

But to get to the most important trend you have to dig under the job numbers and look at what kind of new jobs are being created. That's where the big problem lies.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/the-real-news-on-jobs_b_831493.html?ir=Politics

[Uta]

1. Robert Reich

Wish we had a labor secretary like THAT again.

[Kolesar]

2. We need a trillion dollar stimulus of infrastructure and renewable energy spending.

Bernaike has tried to stimulate the economy by buying bonds to drive interest rates down. That "stimulus" is about played out.

[Denninmi]

3. But, But, But -- we were promised Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!!!

Didn't the Giant Orange Boner say something to that effect right after the election last November? Wasn't that part of the whole right wing mantra last year?

[CoffeeCat]

4. This information is critical!

This information sheds so much light on what is happening in this country. We all heard
that unemployment went down, but we know that things are not getting better. Reich
explains why this is. Jobs that are being created are lower paying; not high-paying jobs
with great benefits.

I know so many people who were unemployed for extended periods. They are now employed, but
they have taken pay cuts and demotions. These people are making less, selling their homes
and downsizing their lives. They're spending less.

This is happening on a grand scale. It's also happening with people who haven't been unemployed.
So many who have kept their jobs took paycuts. This happened to our family. We took a paycut
nearly two years ago, and we are still recouping those unexpected losses.

Employers have the upper hand right now. Job seekers are taking less pay just to get a job.
Current employees aren't getting raises or promotions--and they're excepting this as the new
normal. So many people aren't even getting cost-of-living raises. They're just happy to be
employed.

The cumulative effect of all of this--means that the aggregate is making less, buying less
and tightening the purse strings. Gas and food prices have cut into disposable income.

I really have a sour view of our economy. Our new way of life seems to have slid down a few
rungs on the ladder. With an economy dependent on consumer spending--I see continued contraction.

I'm glad Reich explained this. Reich validated what I (and many others) know, and feel--in their gut.

[Knight Hawk]

5. I wish............

I could disagree with you .But I can't.

[applegrove]

6. Remember too that baby boomers are retireing at a rate of 300,000 a month.

[AdHocSolver]

7. There is only one way to revive the U.S. economy. Limit imports of everyday goods.

Bring manufacturing of everyday goods such as clothing, shoes, appliances, tools, electronics, hardware, furniture, and many other items back to the U.S. and put Americans back to work.

Working Americans can afford to buy goods made by other Americans. Working Americans pay income taxes that pay for education, infrastructure, scientific research, and other social benefits.

Currently, only the corporations profit from sending jobs to low wage countries. Americans don't benefit because creeping inflation is increasing prices on imports, even as income is declining across the board for the middle class.

Every dollar spent on imports by Americans is divided between foreign companies that manufacture the goods and the U.S. corporations that import the goods. The importers avoid taxes. They do not pass along the savings to you any more. They don't have to since there is no longer any significant competition from the few American manufacturing companies still around.

There is no way that U.S. manufacturing companies can compete with foreign imports, so long as retailers are given no incentive to "buy American".

Trade policies must be implemented to level the playing field between American workers and cheap foreign labor. Trade agreements such as NAFTA have to go. Import quotas and duties must be used to give American companies that want to manufacture goods in America the ability to compete.

To this reality, the corporations cry "trade war". The "trade war" has been going on for the past 25 years and the American worker has already lost.

Just lowering the interest rates to stimulate the economy is a failed policy. The Fed lowered the interest rates twenty years ago, and the result was the real estate boom and bust, caused by bad mortgages and bank fraud.

The U.S. cannot grow its way out of recession relying on Wall Street and the banks. American companies cannot get loans to expand in the U.S. In the last three months, I read where two manufacturers tried to get loans to expand operations (create jobs), and were turned down by American banks. They wound up getting loans from Chinese banks. Guess where those factories and jobs are going to be situated!

One of the companies is one that developed new technologies for using solar energy. Thanks to bank bailout money with no strings attached, that new American technology now belongs to china.