Comments on: The rise of the unemployable underclass

By: aussie2390

aussie2390 — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:46:05 +0000

I almost laugh, except for what is happening, has been going on for years, 30 years in the making, america has outsourced jobs and insourced labor, as a population you cannot sustain job growth. Good, bad or indifferent, we’ve have wrapped to much importance into the stock market, while all thier looking for is the bottom line. As a country we need to reward the companies that stay home, invest in alternative energies and nano technologies for the future, even if it’s not good for wall street. Main street and wall street are a parralell universe. We sold out the american worker for graft and greed.

By: McGriffen

McGriffen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:47:48 +0000

I would welcome some discourse on the other side of this fence: the hiring process. All those unemployment checks, such as it is, are better to be scurried aside if possible when the rainy day fund starts leaking. Those benefits suck, relative terms, to an ongoing & quantifiably better contract / full-term employments.

Not enough print is being added to who, or what exactly, lurks on the opposite side of the coin: HR and recruiters. I can barely stand to work with, or through, another recruiting agency that I can not see in-person.

By: TFF

TFF — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 23:19:04 +0000

CDN, universities are simply expensive to run. It is a labor-intensive industry that demands people at the top of their professions. University salaries are already not competitive with industry (though job security and the working environment may be superior). If you push salaries down too far, they’ll lose even more of the top people than they already do.

If you want to make a college education more affordable, then subsidize it. Adopting pure socialism (government sets prices, controls all industries) is unpalatable. Don’t we have enough of that in health care already?

By: CDN_finance

CDN_finance — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:57:14 +0000

Maybe I’m way off here, but maybe if govt put hard caps on how much tuition universities and colleges charge maybe there wouldn’t be such a ‘lost cause’ attitude amongst unskilled/under educated workers. I mean the rates are really disgusting and it’s not unreasonable to think this contribute to the apathetic attitudes (republicans call it laziness) of the young and poor… hard to be motivated when you feel helpless.

By: bruce1963

bruce1963 — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:46:04 +0000

uhh… real wages *rose*? But I’ve been hearing that real wages *fell* during most of the period before the recession. Is that an apples to apples comparison or are they two different sets of numbers applying to two different groups of people.

Because if middle class earners lost money during the “boom”, and things are picking up after the “crash” .. that would just be kind of funny.

By: RoelofP

RoelofP — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:44:57 +0000

Europe faces the same problem, only another maiun question: how long can we still afford this.
The economic problem (next to the social one of course) in my view is that one way or another, these people have to live and will cost money leading to higher taxes for the rest. Can the country afford to do so seen international competition.

By: RoelofP

RoelofP — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:48:29 +0000

Interesting times. I donot think the basic situation in Europe is different. They have even more structurally unemployed (only often relabelled like disabled or government workers). They are more faced or will be soon the question how to pay for all this. But basically it is the same problem.
The main questions imho are:
-how a society can pay for all this;
-how can a society reduce the costs of such groups.

Especially since middleclass is likely to get some income pressure from EM’s and people and cies get more and more mobile (so can move more easily to lower tax jurisdictions).
Eg Asian countries are not going to make the same mistake as Europe did (creating a massive welfare system), so next to the availability of low wage workers they will have the advantage of lower tax-burdens.
Of course it is a nice and social thing, but can we in the West keep affording it? Affording while not breaking down a well functioning economic system for the majority.

By: DanHess

DanHess — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:12:00 +0000

Good post. Welcome back!!

America is in an interesting place right now. Most simple work has been automated and what remains involves (a) considerable training to learn a skill such as nursing or technician of some kind or (b) knowledge work or (c) some combination of (a) and (b).

Unskilled work does not exist in abundance in America, and where it does, wages are driven very low by an abundance of unskilled workers.

The correlation between education and both employment and income is overwhelming.
http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm

That is what is Obama is forcefully stressing these days. He has a point…

On this topic, what do 99 weeks of unemployment checks (really generous, no?) do to the unemployment rate?

By: klhoughton

klhoughton — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:29:13 +0000

“In 2008, only 13.2% of the labor force was unemployed at some point.”

Which is why there is desperation to claim that the recession “ended” in June of 2009, so we can pretend that those U-6s running above 16% are mythical creatures, not to mention the stubborn insistence of U-4 and U-5 in running in double-digits during this recovery.