Underpaid Genius

No Jobs, But More Talk Of War

In principle, I am in favor of President Obama’s efforst to reform health care (although he has settled on the restructuring of health insurance, and has forsworn health care reform as impossible, given the intransigence and outright stupidity of Republicans and right-leaning citizens), but his adventuring in Central Asia is outright madness, especially when he should be focusing on getting people back to work, and building a more resilient American economy.

Where are the jobs, Mr. President? Where is the care and concern for the average person, instead of Wall Street? Where’s your focus?

Not only are we fighting activity in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, we are engaged in anti-islamist activities in the Philippines and who knows where else. And the saber rattling goes on with Iran.

Can we please get bck to basics, and stop squandering our future on overseas wars?

[via U.S. Job Seekers Exceed Openings by Record Ratioby Peter Goodman]

“Two recent surveys of newspaper help-wanted advertisements and of employers’ inclinations to add workers were at their lowest levels on record, noted Andrew Tilton, a Goldman Sachs economist.

Job placement companies say their customers are not yet wiling to hire large numbers of temporary workers, usually a precursor to hiring full-timers.

“It’s going to take quite some time before we see robust job growth,” said Tig Gilliam, chief executive of Adecco North America, a major job placement and staffing company.

During the last recession, in 2001, the number of jobless people reached little more than double the number of full-time job openings, according to the Labor Department data. By the beginning of this year, job seekers outnumbered jobs four-to-one, with the ratio growing ever more lopsided in recent months.

Though layoffs have been both severe and prominent, the greatest source of distress is a predilection against hiring by many American businesses. From the beginning of the recession in December 2007 through July of this year, job openings declined 45 percent in the West and the South, 36 percent in the Midwest and 23 percent in the Northeast.

Shrinking job opportunities have assailed virtually every industry this year. Since the end of 2008, job openings have diminished 47 percent in manufacturing, 37 percent in construction and 22 percent in retail. Even in education and health services — faster-growing areas in which many unemployed people have trained for new careers — job openings have dropped 21 percent this year. Despite the passage of a stimulus spending package aimed at shoring up state and local coffers, government job openings have diminished 17 percent this year.”