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The problem is -- the demand for jobs is low -- Americans don't want the jobs that are being created -- all the jobs in factories, construction, restaurants and all the other jobs that apparently only illegals will do.
Even teenagers won't work --- Americans now have the idea that if they're not going to make over $100,000 a year and sit at a desk, they'll just live off government handouts. The average welfare household now costs over $61,000 a year to support --- so why work hard for $50,000 a year when you will live much better if you don't work.
Why the baby boomers had it better --- they were willing to work for a living.
In 1978, nearly three in four teenagers (71.8 percent) ages 16 to 19 held a summer job, but as of last year, only about four in 10 teens did, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the month of July analyzed by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Not enough jobs: We've already been over the lack of work vs. number of people out of work (minimum of 2.6 unemployed per job opening), but it's enough to say that there's nowhere near enough work to go around.
Illegals cheat the system: Secondly, Americans "don't want jobs" that won't pay them enough to survive. Illegals can cheat the system because everyone looks the other way when they: live 10 per household, don't pay income taxes, and exploit every social safety net. Yeah, I'd work for poverty wages, too, if the rules didn't apply to me, I got lots of free stuff, and I didn't have to pay any income tax... except it doesn't work that way for American citizens, hence the cheaper labor replacing us.
Oh, and for the record, THAT is where your teenage jobs went - that lawn-mowing job you had back in the "good old days" is now being done by an illegal alien, paid under the table, for probably the same pay you or I would have received 20+ years ago.
Where the money really goes: Third, your number about what it costs to support welfare households is grossly overstated:
"Moreover, if we look only at entitlement programs that are targeted to people with low incomes, the percentage of benefit dollars going to people who are elderly or disabled or members of working households remains high. Five of every six benefit dollars in these programs — 83 percent — go to such people.
If anything, these figures understate the percentage of the benefits that generally go to people who are elderly, disabled, or members of working households. As noted, these data are for fiscal year 2010, a year when the unemployment rate averaged 9.6 percent and an unusually large number of Americans were in economic distress. In fiscal year 2007, the share of entitlement benefits going to people who are elderly or disabled or members of working households was a bit higher. "
Welcome to the new normal. As the economy crawls along the demand for workers will be low. Business can pick and choose who they want and need. They will not need to train anyone, because they can wait till the best worker shows up.
This is exactly the wall that I keep hitting. There is a dearth of opportunities for the less-experienced worker. So basically, you had to be in the right place at the right time before the recession. I feel stuck right now and I absolutely hate feeling stuck. My natural response is to hit the accelerator pedal on my skills enhancement by reading as many technical books in my spare time and working on independent software/hardware projects. However, not one lick of that effort is being noticed or considered by employers. I cannot even get the chance to speak with someone regarding an opportunity because HR is screening resumes using data-mining keyword searching algorithms that calculate the amount of time you spent in your last position. And if your last position is irrelevant to the job you applied for, well guess what, your resume just got sucked into the HR black hole of oblivion!! Companies are setting themselves up for a real shock when the next round of people retire and there are no younger workers with the exact skills they are looking for because they skipped over them in the hiring process.
It also takes a special type of product and person to start a business and actually be successful. Also, a bit of luck - being at the right places at the right times with the right product.
That goes without saying. If you have the product or service idea that is somehow not used in the market or the industry, you have everything ready to go. I know from experience. My senior semester two years ago I had a course about new venture capital management and had to help out a company with grading the business plan and giving suggestions to the company. The company was looking to do mobile credit card payments. That sounds like a unique idea don't it? However Google Wallet and American Express Sync were in there as well as other smaller ones in other towns and bars. If the company was to work, they would need to stick to mom and pop's like they wanted to. If they wanted to mass market, Google and Amex would have crushed them.
This is exactly the wall that I keep hitting. There is a dearth of opportunities for the less-experienced worker. So basically, you had to be in the right place at the right time before the recession.
You are right on the money with that response.
People who were of college age during the tech boom were in the right place at the right time. Like someone said in another thread on this forum, "If you could so much as spell 'I.T.', you could get an I.T. job during the tech boom." That's true. Companies like Microsoft and IBM were hiring people in large numbers and training them. I know a women who was a Philosophy major who couldn't write the Hello world! program and yet she got a job as a Software Engineer at Microsoft after graduating. That's unheard-of today. You had to have been at the right place at the right time if you wanted to get a good tech job without having prior experience.
In almost every sectors, it seems, hiring booms are unheard of. Sure, there are still job openings, but mostly due to people switching jobs or retiring. So you have the same experienced workers getting passed around, and maybe a few openings to replace retired workers, openings that will go to either experienced people or superstar college grads with lucrative internship experience and high GPAs.
People who were of college age during the tech boom were in the right place at the right time. Like someone said in another thread on this forum, "If you could so much as spell 'I.T.', you could get an I.T. job during the tech boom." That's true. Companies like Microsoft and IBM were hiring people in large numbers and training them. I know a women who was a Philosophy major who couldn't write the Hello world! program and yet she got a job as a Software Engineer at Microsoft after graduating. That's unheard-of today. You had to have been at the right place at the right time if you wanted to get a good tech job without having prior experience.
In almost every sectors, it seems, hiring booms are unheard of. Sure, there are still job openings, but mostly due to people switching jobs or retiring. So you have the same experienced workers getting passed around, and maybe a few openings to replace retired workers, openings that will go to either experienced people or superstar college grads with lucrative internship experience and high GPAs.
Spot on. And when I graduated in 2008 the recession was just starting and I couldn't find a position so I moved back in with my parents. And it didn't even matter that I had internship experience and graduated summa c*m laude. I had to take a temporary contract position and they kept stringing me along telling me they'd eventually hire me on full time.
Economic output increases ----> # of jobs increases
which is clearly wrong. There are many African countries where GDP is growing and yet the unemployment rate is 70% or more.
Also, a fully-employed population isn't necessarily wealthy or free. I'm pretty sure that Communist Russia had 0% unemployment.
The type of job market a nation should aim for if it wants to be a healthy nation is:
Low unemployment: The people who are unemployed for any longer than 1 month either chose to take time off work or are transitioning between jobs. People sitting around with no work to do makes for vast social problems. You don't want a large unemployed class like we have.
The majority of people belonging to a "middle class", an income bracket where they have enough money to afford a house, food, a child or 2. Otherwise, you have vast social problems. The human instinct to procreate is strong. People will procreate whether or not they have the means to support their procreation. Thus, you don't want 90% of the population making minimum wage. That makes for kids whose hardly get any parental attention because both of their parents are working all the time.
People feel like they have the freedom to move to a new location, change fields, move up the ladder, etc. It's not good when the population feels they've been pigeonholed into a job, when skills aren't considered transferable, when there's not chance for advancement in their current role, etc.
That's how the job market was at one time in America. We need to figure out how we got from there to where we are today. If it was a matter of policy, we need to change policy.
This is well written and brings up several good points.....
I like the third point especially.... No one worth a damn wants to move to another job where they do the same exact thing for the same exact (or less) pay.
This is well written and brings up several good points.....
I like the third point especially.... No one worth a damn wants to move to another job where they do the same exact thing for the same exact (or less) pay.
The other side of that 3rd point that is key is when work in one's field dries up, you need to be able to change to similar fields. You simply can't do that anymore these days because of insanely narrow experience requirements. Oh, sure - you can "go back to school," get in debt, and then hope somebody hires you with zero experience in your "new field." But that's not a practical solution for most people, and is doubly insane when somebody needs work now, not hopes and dreams a few years from now if they are lucky.
The other side of that 3rd point that is key is when work in one's field dries up, you need to be able to change to similar fields. You simply can't do that anymore these days because of insanely narrow experience requirements. Oh, sure - you can "go back to school," get in debt, and then hope somebody hires you with zero experience in your "new field." But that's not a practical solution for most people, and is doubly insane when somebody needs work now, not hopes and dreams a few years from now if they are lucky.
Exactly... Very good points....
The main criticism people have with my area is even though we have several well thought of schools, several offer well respected degrees in STEM, students do not stay in the area after graduation.
I feel like slapping people that ask this... The reason they don't stay is no one offers them good entry level work in the fields that they spent the last 4 years training for.
Some people are lucky enough to get hired at the two companies that offer internship programs. But that counts on the companies actually having openings at the time.
I haven't read too many posts here, but I am laughing.
I'm guessing there are a lot of 'union" people here that believe if you put in your time, you should be rewarded for showing up.
Hard work combined with determination works the majority of time. The majority, not all but majority, of people who complain that they don't get the breaks, don't have the connections or aren't born with a silver spoon are relatively lazy and almost always make excuses. They have bad attitudes, feel they are owed something and believe the other guy doesn't deserve what they have.
We see immigrants who can barely speak the language show up all the time and build successful family businesses by busting their humps.
Go ahead and keep whining about "fairness", because that has gotten you a long ways, hasn't it?
(And for those who don't get it, I'm talking about most people, because there are exceptions due to things like illness, disabilities, etc. I must spell this out for the whiners who don't face those challenges but want to illustrate them in order to make more excuses.)
The problem is -- the demand for jobs is low -- Americans don't want the jobs that are being created -- all the jobs in factories, construction, restaurants and all the other jobs that apparently only illegals will do.
Even teenagers won't work --- Americans now have the idea that if they're not going to make over $100,000 a year and sit at a desk, they'll just live off government handouts. The average welfare household now costs over $61,000 a year to support --- so why work hard for $50,000 a year when you will live much better if you don't work.
Why the baby boomers had it better --- they were willing to work for a living.
In 1978, nearly three in four teenagers (71.8 percent) ages 16 to 19 held a summer job, but as of last year, only about four in 10 teens did, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the month of July analyzed by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
I worked as a teen and it got me nowhere. I had pride, so I worked, but the times I worked MW jobs part time amounted to 150 bucks, which I could wipe my as- with.
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