Drilling Down on Unemployment

Today, with the latest jobs report showing an “improved” jobs picture with a lower 7.3 percent national unemployment rate, as people are finally willing to replace the 11+ year-old family car (the national average age of vehicles in the U.S.) with new vehicles straining car dealerships and manufacturers, and with the highest level of consumer confidence in five years, folks are seeing a whole new phase to the recovery. Or so the statistics seem to tell us.

I’ve already covered how the quality of the jobs that the majority of people are finding these days generates lower pay, often merely part-time work and often entails accepting a “limited engagement” as a contractor with a specific timeline and no benefits. I’ve noted that the increase in domestic manufacturing has generated more income, not for lots of new workers, but for the owners of the automated equipment that dominates this sector in the United States.

But today, I want to address the deepest and saddest reality behind the numbers: the vast droves of workers of all ages who have simply given up looking for jobs in a pretty hostile work environment. The numbers are not pretty.

Little factors, like our proclivity to arrest, convict and incarcerate at a level that no other country in the world can match, has pretty much added massive layers of perpetually “unemployable” workers, often forced back into criminal activity as their only perceived economic recourse. For older workers, the period of non-work generated from the great recession has created new obsolescence, and for younger, entry-level workers, even those with degrees, they are struggling with student loans and looking for job openings with enough earning power to service that debt.

We have the smallest workforce in 30 years (USAToday.com, April 13, 2011, CBS Morning News, September 6^th) despite a massive increase in our overall population. We had around 233 million people in 1983, and about 316 million today. Think about the ramifications of those numbers. What’s worse, those who are working are making less (in terms of buying power), consistently year-after-year, since 2002.

And there’s another disturbing trend: “In the 1950s, nearly every man in his prime working years was in the labor force, a category that includes both those who are employed and those actively applying for jobs. The ‘participation rate’ for men ages 25 to 54 stood at 97.7% in early 1956, but drifted downward to a post-war record low of 88.4% at the end of 2012. (It ticked up very slightly at the start of this year to 88.6%.)” Money.cnn.com, June 19^th.

Yet, we are not doing the kinds of things that a nation serious about its future would do. The Tea Party has insufficient faith in the future of the United States to invest (not “spend”) for the basic long-term building blocks for growth and job creation: education, infrastructure and research. Their Sequester and overall ability to block bills in the House have cut all three.

          I’m Peter Dekom, and if people believe in the United States, why won’t they invest in it?!