OI. The story of the status quo


Economy Adv Exts - Unemployment high now



Download 0.82 Mb.
Page10/41
Date16.01.2018
Size0.82 Mb.
#36909
1   ...   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   ...   41

Economy Adv Exts - Unemployment high now




US job growth sluggish


Kevin, Carmichael 7-4-12, economics editor at The Globe and Mail, http://m.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/less-firing-but-not-enough-hiring-in-us-jobs-market/article4099008/?service=mobile,”Less firing, but not enough hiring in U.S. jobs market “,7/4/12. jeong
The U.S. Labour Department’s monthly report Job Openings and Labour Turnover Survey generally attracts little notice. But anyone serious about studying the recovery should be paying closer attention. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is.¶ Mr. Bernanke raised the profile of the JOLTS report considerably last month when he used the data to help explain why he’s skeptical the unemployment rate will continue to fall at a rapid pace.¶ Regina outpaces the rest of the country¶ U.S. jobless claims fall to lowest since 2008¶ Do we really know what's going on in the jobs market?¶ The survey measures employment, job openings, hires, quits, layoffs and other types of separations. The Labour Department is scheduled to release February data Tuesday morning at 10 a.m.¶ The lateness of the JOLTS figures explains the report’s lower profile. The Labour Department’s March estimate of non-farm payroll employment and the unemployment rate were released last week, as anyone who watches equity markets well knows.¶ Yet the delay allows for a clearer reading of labour market conditions. The monthly payroll numbers that attract so much attention are net figures: a tally of all the hiring and firing taking place each month.¶ As Mr. Bernanke pointed out to an audience in Washington last month, one side of that equation has improved dramatically. Layoffs have slowed considerably, allowing the unemployment rate to drop. However, for that momentum to continue, employers must boost their hiring. And that’s not happening.¶ There were 4.3 million job openings when the U.S. economy dropped into recession in December, 2007. That number bottomed at 2.2 million in July, 2009, and climbed back to 3.2 million in April, 2010. Job openings then slid a bit before getting back to three million in October, 2010. The figure climbed to 3.5 million in September of last year, and hasn’t moved much since.¶ That suggests employers are holding back from taking on new workers. The hiring rate was 3.3 per cent in March, 2011, and has oscillated between 3.1 per cent and 3.2 per cent ever since. In 2006, the hiring rate was never lower than 3.8 per cent.¶ “The declines in aggregate payrolls during the recession stemmed from both a reduction in hiring and a large increase in layoffs,” Mr. Bernanke said in a speech in late March. “In contrast, the increase in employment since the end of 2009 has been due to a significant decline in layoffs but only a moderate improvement in hiring. To achieve a more rapid recovery in the job market, hiring rates will need to return to more normal levels.”¶ Mr. Bernanke didn’t define a “normal” hiring rate. As the Labour Department’s chart of hiring rates over the past 10 years, the normal rate is probably considerably higher than then current 3.1 per cent. Between January, 2002, and the start of the recession in December, 2007, the hiring rate was never lower than 3.6 per cent.

US economy heading towards the cliff - unemployment is too high - creating jobs key to securing economic stability


Featherman, 12 (Bernard Featherman, economics writer for Journal Tribune, “Job creation will jumpstart the economy”, http://www.journaltribune.com/articles/2012/07/12/columnist/doc4ffee21b22763301387879.txt, July 12, 2012)

America is sitting on the edge of a fiscal cliff and unless changes are made, our economy may fall off it once more. Like Greece, Spain and Italy, our debt is great, our unemployment is high and our political will is wimpy. To prevent an economic collapse, we need to work on deficit reduction, job development and reducing regulations. No one has all the answers about what should be done, but we do know that job growth brings in tax revenues, while giving people the means to buy consumer goods. Creating more jobs, and getting more Americans employed, is our number one, most critical issue. Job declines remain at 8.2 percent and it is uncertain when they will drop lower. Without higher employment numbers, it will be difficult for the economy to get out of its doldrums. The government response is in a stall mode, with no quick fix in sight. Our economic engine needs retooling in education, manufacturing innovations and energy use in order to prevent a deep second recession. Education needs drastic improvement. Our schools are not doing a good job in math, science and high-tech innovations. Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, an international organization of 34 countries, compares test scores in subjects such as math, for its 34-member nations. In 2010, the United States student scores ranked 24th. There are still plenty of well-paying jobs available in this country, but many of them require math, science, engineering or technology skills. A lot of businesses have to hire foreign workers, and bring them here, to fill their empty positions, because not enough of our young people have adequate training in technical areas. Part of the reason is that not enough teachers are strong in those subjects, and the other is that too few students are willing to take the necessary math and science classes. New teachers in those specialties will need to be hired and students need to be required, by state education departments, to take more classes in math and science, because the future, higher-paying jobs will be for those who have skills in those subjects. Many poor and middle-class families don’t have the money or lack incentives to encourage their children to go to college. For those who don’t go on for higher education, there are still many skilled vocational jobs that pay good wages in plumbing, electrical, carpentry, truck driving and skilled mechanics trades. Government service positions like police, fire department and commercial licensed skilled workers pay good wages for high school graduates, but the best paying jobs in the future will be given to college graduates with strong skills in math, engineering, health sciences and computer-related work. Manufacturing efficiencies, along with technological innovations, also are needed to revitalize our economy’s growth. Automation in manufacturing has resulted in fewer jobs. To prevent skilled job shortages resulting from layoffs, we need to develop incentives to help move unemployed workers and capital to new, growing sectors of the economy. We need to stimulate small business startups, neighborhood micro-businesses, and small business subcontractors, with manufacturer set-asides that will increase future job growth. Our government must also reassess the lowering of tax rates on American manufacturers, to match foreign countries’ rates that are much lower than ours. It can affect competitive exporting of more American- made goods to overseas buyers. We are still the most competitive manufacturing country in the world. Although our labor rates are high, foreign labor rates will continue to rise. And with reduced tax rates on American manufacturing companies, jobs will grow, even if our wages are higher than competition overseas. Energy savings advances in the future can result in using less energy in our daily lives and in our businesses. We are starting to drill more oil and gas wells in America, which will lessen dependence on foreign supply sources. Wind mills and solar energy are growing in our communities. We are supplying more natural gas for heating, which is cheaper than oil. Increased global demand will limit energy supplies in the next decade. Americans will face industry and home use shortages, unless restrictions on electricity consumption are put in place. One solution would be for more manufacturing, commercial and home users to buy electricity in off-peak hours, at lower rates, and store that electricity in special brick-lined tanks. What we need is less politics and more retraining and retooling for future jobs.

US labor market weak now - key variable in US economy


Kurtzleben, 12 (Danielle Kurtzleben, business and economic reporter for the US News and World Report, “When an unemployment rate decline is bad news”, http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/05/04/when-an-unemployment-rate-decline-is-bad-news, May 4th, 2012)

The U.S. economy added 115,000 jobs in April, with the jobless rate shifting down slightly to 8.1 percent, marking a slowdown from February's 259,000 jobs added and March's 154,000. The latest jobs number comes as a disappointment—many analysts had predicted growth of 160,000 jobs or more, and 115,000 is not quite enough to keep up with population growth. The incongruous unemployment rate decline accompanying such anemic job growth is a sign of a troubling trend: a shrinking labor force. The unemployment rate is calculated as a percentage of people either with jobs or looking for jobs. When that number shrinks, the unemployment rate can also fall, even without substantial job growth. In April, the labor force participation rate fell to 63.6 percent, the lowest it has been since 1981. "The drop [in labor force participation] has stayed there. It hasn't disappeared as the labor market has started to improve," says Matt Slaughter, associate dean of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a former member of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisors. With such a prolonged dip in the participation rate, he says, there is now the question of whether this is the new normal. "How much of this big drop in the labor force participation rate will end up being permanent?" Slaughter says. One fear is that some workers who have dropped out of the workforce will be permanently off of payrolls, meaning that the U.S. economy loses their productive capacity for good. "If you look at how the employment numbers have gone over the last couple of years, many people have left the job market and have left the civilian labor pool. I think the big question is, will they come back?" says Scot Melland, president and CEO of Dice Holdings, which sponsors recruitment websites. "The fear is if those [who have dropped out] are people who need the income and have those skills ... that damages the U.S. economy overall if those people choose not to try to find a job again," Slaughter says. The April numbers continued recent industry trends, with certain industries showing continued growth and others remaining stubbornly weak. Healthcare and social assistance, which has grown steadily during the recovery, added 18,400 jobs, while professional and business services grew by 62,000 jobs. Meanwhile, construction lost 2,000 jobs and government shed 15,000, continuing their trends of shaky job numbers. "This has not been a broad-based labor recovery," Melland says. "There have been winning sectors and losers." Some unevenness between industries' growth rates is normal, but for a strong, stable recovery, there will need to be improvement even in the weaker sectors, says Slaughter. "Certain industries are growing faster than others," he adds. "But right now the challenge for the U.S. economy is that you need lots of industries expanding employment." That consistent weakness in particular industries could be one factor keeping some workers out of the labor force. A broader measure of the unemployment rate that includes people who have given up the job search, the U-6 rate, stopped its steady slide last month. That rate fell from 16.4 percent in September to 14.5 percent in March, where it remained in April.



Download 0.82 Mb.

Share with your friends:
1   ...   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   ...   41



The database is protected by copyright ©ininet.org 2024
send message
    Main page
last couple
next steps
overall number
direct result
fewest number
house transportation