U.S. Recovery Cold Comfort for Unemployed

[Pale Blue Dot]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - If you believe the experts, the U.S. economy is starting to regain momentum. But ask Murray Kieffer, laid off in May 2001 from his sales manager job in Minneapolis, and you get a very different answer.

"I certainly haven't seen any major change," said Kieffer, a 47-year-old father of two who spends seven hours a day job-hunting.

Last week, the arbiter of economic cycles made it official -- the recession ended nearly two years ago, in November 2001.

But unemployment is rising, not falling, and policy-makers have begun talking about the same "jobless recovery" phenomenon seen following the 1990-91 recession.

more...

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XCGRL3ULHEEGQCRBAEZSFFA?type=businessNews&storyID=3164928

[lcordero]

1. jobless???somebody here on DU already coined the term

JOBLOSS recovery

[indictrichardperle]

2. get rid of the middle class

ship every manufacturing and service job, including the tech sector overseas.

If the plunge protection team, can make the market go up a little, and some fat cat CEO's can make a few more million by cutting a few thousand more jobs.......thats neo-con economics 101. The AEI has an economics wing, they are into more than just war profiteering. :puke:

[duid12]

14. neo-con?

OK, I've read it enough...I'll admit my ignorance...what is a "neo-con"? I take it "con" means 'conservative' and maybe neo just means "neo"...but what is a "neo-conservative"?

[Sentath]

19. Well .. They're not conservatives

Neo - new
con - the opposite of pro

Neo-cons tend to be for: large cap and market dominance; public morals and religiosity; an aggressive foreign policy and the PNAC (shudder).

[Maeve]

23. Neocons are a breed of the right wing

They are anticommunist, pro-capitalist and tend to believe they can (and have a right to) make over the world as they see fit, by any means necessary. Power is no longer seen as something that corrupts but the great necessity, the means to all ends. And the ends always justify the means....They are empire-builders and anti-government only when government isn't doing what they want.

Run a google on the term, or try this link for further info: http://shockingelk.com/text/neoconservative/

[clarkbarr]

16. But Andrew Sullivan says that the economy is WONDERFUL!

Look at this excerpt from Queen Andy's blog:

DARK DAY FOR KRUGMAN: His hopes for recession seem to be receding.
- 1:51:08 PM

wonder what green leafy herb Queen Andy is consuming????

[madrchsod]

3. 160+ jobs were lost in

dekalb,il. this week. the company closed its plant and is moving production to mexico. well denny hastert that`s in your district isn`t it..seems like that cheap mexican labor is alot better than that tax= jobs bullshit you pulled on your district. i guess you can live with 10%+ unemployment,can`t you...

[celestia671]

4. 800 jobs lost in my area

A paper mill is closing by the end of the month.

[InkAddict]

7. Better watch out - you'll be charged w/

the dreaded "xenophobia." Seriously, I really do need enlightenment, not so much about "fair" trade, but about the fairness of wholesaling out American jobs to other countries - I've just about had it with merging, downsizing, outsourcing, etc...(IT field). Apparently, there are some hi-posting DUers who think the New World Order/unilateralism/gaia - is just peachy and will result in a kum-ba-ya around the globe as everyone comes together as one w/America. Is it really just "sour grapes" when productive, responsible, creative people are shut out of American employment to keep profits up for greedy CEOs and institutional stockholders?

I don't hate strangers and I'm interested in other cultures. But, even with all the hijacked oil of Iraq, I have my doubts that that 1% has any interest in investments here at home.

With the savings gone after a year+ of unemployment and with tuition costs climbing, those over 40 will have a tough time re-training for anything except under some social program that the fed/state/loc communities are unlikely to fund for lack of revenue.

This "jobless" recovery(?) is shame-making and undignified!

[jamesinca]

12. Microsoft

For what it is worth, in the saturday San Fransisco Chronicle business section it mentioned that Microsoft is looking to hire 5,000 people real soon. You may or may not like Microsoft, but it is a job and it may help you get on your feet.

[Aaron]

17. I think that was worldwide (some in US though) (n/t)

[area51]

24. MS hiring

jamesinca said:

"For what it is worth, in the saturday San Fransisco Chronicle business section it mentioned that Microsoft is looking to hire 5,000 people real soon."

Actually, only 3,000 of those 5,000 jobs will be here in the USA.

[Sentath]

20. Its not all peachy, but it is unstoppable

Not that the pace shouldn't be controlled.... But how much enery do you expend slowing the boulder and how much do you use to try to get people out of the way?

I fear that we the world are facing another era of robber barons and that it will have to get very nearly that bad again before the protections that are in place for 'first world' workers can be implemented elsewhere.

[JewelDigger]

5. What recovery???? Where???

:shrug:

[mhr]

6. Long Term Unemployed

No recovery here!

Been unemployed for three years.

Just road kill on the information superhighway, err republican highway of death!

[InkAddict]

8. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!

Plague on the land, you know. Bring on the street carts and load 'em up.

[MUAD_DIB]

27. I think that it's actually

aschews, aschews as in achoo!: a sign of getting sick with the plague.

[sasquatch]

9. The Repo market is growing

hell sombody's gotta take away people's homes and cars when they can't make the payment. They can't make the payment because there job was taken from them and givin to a 14 year old Mexican girl because she will work for under a dollar an hour. I have no fear or hatred of other cultures in fact I want to see the world.

[InkAddict]

10. Got an assignment for you Ohioan

Here's the address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue/DC - Bring back the keys.

[study_war_no_more]

11. mexico is doubling their border guards

they don't want Americans crossing illegally and stealing their jobs as meager as they are.

[radfringe]

13. not jobless recovery

it's a
JOB-LOSS RECOVERY

[southern_demo]

15. Where are the 9 dwarfs?

But for Edwards, none of our candidates ever talks about this, which is the number one issue

Personally, I favor certain very simple solutions:

1. A product service based in whole or part on US government or State funded research (i.e., research at a State University) must be made in the USA. To take taxpayers dollars to develop products and then make this elsewhere is nothing short of stealing.

2. Same goes for a product or service developed with research and development tax credits.

3. Patents protection only for a product made in the USA. You can make a product in China, but no patent protection.

4. Same for copyrights.

5. Application of wage/hour laws, work comp law, income tax laws, to workers who are providing "services" in the United States. For example, a call center in India would have to comply with miniumum wage, withhold income taxes, and pay FICA taxes on employees who are doing business in US via telephone.

[booksenkatz]

18. If the recession ended in 11/01

...then why am I still paying more for groceries when my family's eating habits have not changed? If anything, we're eating LESS in this house. Why did my mortgage go up $100/month in June? Utilities are up, the cost of everything is up, at least in my part of the country (Michigan). When can I expect to see some relief from this "booming" economy?

My part-time job with a major company was eliminated in March 2002 due to the lousy economy. They got rid of all part-timers. The company has had a hiring freeze ever since, and this is a MAJOR company I'm talking about. They have tons of vacancies here in the Midwest and the folks who still have a job with them are scrambling to cover for those vacancies, it's like working 3-4 jobs for them. I'd almost feel sorry for them, but at least they're getting paychecks!

It's the Republican way... keep everyone over a barrel, worried sick about their finances and their jobs, that way they won't notice the corruption and theft in the Bush administration.

I can't help but notice that my family was doing really great when Clinton was president ~ we actually used to SAVE money each month ~ but our financial situation has gone downhill badly in just the past coupla years since Bush took over. My dh has had two raises since Bush took over, so why are we doing WORSE, when our expenditures have actually gone down?? After 20 years of marriage, we're now living almost the same scrimping lifestyle as when we were newlyweds. For example, we'll probably have to skip Christmas presents this year for the first time ever. It's trivial, I know, but it's still sad when you consider that my dh makes a decent salary.

Every time my family gets ahead financially, a Bush becomes president. It stinks!!

edited for too many caps, sorry, I get carried away........

[radfringe]

21. LET'S CALL IT WHAT IT IS...

A
REPUBLICAN RECOVERY

[Mari333]

22. same damn thing happened in the 80s

when Raygun was in, jobs shipped overseas, and the corporations got giant tax breaks..

The middle class in the USA is gone in my town. Its polishing shoes of the wealthy here in the summer, or flipping burgers...in the winter, people burn wood for heat and just barely get by.

[Nottingham]

25. I don't believe any statistics out of the White House! Recession still her

We still have Higher Unemployment under Bush and Small Business are really hurting out there :bounce:

[VeniceDude]

26. Broken Promises to America’s Next Generation

I wrote this Friday to follow up on a LA Times Op-ed piece decrying the further erosion of the US manufacturing sector through outsourcing. I think it plays off the 'Jobless Recovery' theme well. For Jobless Recovery is nothing more than another symptom of the ever-widening gap between the haves and have not's. And if we are not careful our country will slowly rot from within due to the short sighted greed of the few who refuse to plan for America's long term future.
____

In regards to ‘Outsourcing the American Dream’, recent statistics couldn't concur more with Glick's position in regard to the devastating decline of America’s manufacturing sector. But just to turn the heat up on this simmering disaster, one must also consider the 3 million hi-tech jobs gradually being outsourced to emerging countries like India and the Philippines. Many of these jobs were IT customer service positions that laid-off manufacturing workers were retrained for after being let go from their blue-collar jobs in the early 90's. After bravely tackling the daunting transition from sweat labor to brain labor, they once again face being made redundant, but the question is, what will they retrain for now?

And it is not just the beleaguered information technology sector for whom the Reaper looms. In a recently leaked conference call among top level IBM officials, Tom Lynch, IBM’s Director of Global Employee Relations indicated that accounting and financial services are next in line to be shipped overseas.1 Russia and China being the leading contenders. Once again the question emerges of where these Americans will find work in our ever-tightening job market.

The only immediate suggestion put forth so far is that perhaps these displaced workers could be temporarily employed to train their foreign replacements. Now if being tossed on the chopping block yet again was enough, management it seems has the audacity to ask the condemned to sharpen their executioner’s blade as well as provide instruction on how best to wield it.

If these trends continue it seems quite possible that there will soon be no jobs left at all in our country except those servicing the gilded CEO's who have reaped so much from their 'robust cost-cutting measures'.

Based on a May 28th, ABC News Report, the prospects for recent college graduates are even grimmer, for not only will 1.2 million new grads be competing against each other, but they will also be competing with nearly 9 million experienced workers who comprise the swelling ranks of unemployed Americans. One could righteously conclude from all this, that the American Dream is indeed being outsourced, and that the promise to future generations of their own opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is in jeopardy of being broken beyond repair.

That ‘generational promise’ as James Carvill warned in an address to the American Trial Lawyers Association, is, ‘today like no other time in our lifetime, under attack… We have a president that is no longer interested in what happens to the next generation. We have a president that is no longer interested in what happens to the promise of America. “3

Hunter S. Thompson, writing in his ESPN Page 2 column, at least made an effort at contrition for his cohorts’ complicity in this fleecing of America’s future, confessing, “I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it.”4

It seems the only check America’s next generation can count on receiving is the $6 trillion dollar bill for our ballooning national debt.

1) WINS radio broadcast July 23, 2003 – leaked to Washington Alliance of Technology Workers

2) ABC News, ‘Grim Outlook for Grads’, Melody Hobson, May 28th, 2003

3) TomPaine.org, ‘James Carville's Rx For Democrats’, Steven Rosenfeld – July 23rd 2003

4) ESPN Page 2. ‘Welcome to the Big Darkness”, Hunter S. Thompson July 2003