Posted on 07/06/2013 8:40:11 AM PDT by KeyLargo
IBD Editorials
America's Job Recovery Is Only For Part-Timers
Posted 07/05/2013 06:09 PM ET
Employment: From the media to Wall Street, June's jobs report is being spun as a major positive, a sign the economy is getting back on track. Maybe the pundits should look at the actual numbers, which are abysmal.
aclbfTo hear some of them, the 195,000 payroll jobs added for the month while the unemployment rate stayed at 7.6% were a big deal. One investment house called it a "very good report." Another termed it "solid."
Really? Let's take a little closer look at the numbers.
The total number of payroll jobs in the economy, at 135.9 million, is still 1.6% below 5-1/2 years ago, when the recession began. We're not even back at scratch.
At June's pace of 195,000 new jobs a month, it will take 11 months to get back to where we were in 2007. If you factor in monthly growth of 120,000 in the labor force, that will barely make a dent in unemployment.
In short, this jobs recovery isn't solid. It's pathetic.
It's even worse when you consider all of the net addition to June jobs — repeat, all — were part time. Compared with the 360,000 part-time positions created, full-time employment shrank by 240,000.
Year to date, only 130,000 full-time jobs have been added to our economy. The rest of the jobs — 557,000 — have been part time.
And tucked deep into the jobs report was this little tidbit: The underemployment rate, which measures those working in a job for which they're overqualified, or working part-time when they really want full-time work, shot up from 13.8% to 14.3%.
This isn't a solid jobs report. It's a crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Wall Street is covering for Obama as always.
As usual the Wall Street Journal reports:
Updated July 5, 2013, 7:38 p.m. ET
Job Gains Show Staying Power Recovery's Gathering Momentum Drives Treasury Yields to a Two-Year High
“The No. 1 culprit, though, is ObamaCare. The added costs this monstrous piece of legislation has imposed on employers of full-time workers encourages them to hire only part-timers, who get few benefits and no health care.”
I wonder if any of those downsized workers will have a chance to be rehired when Obamacare is delayed or doesn’t go through entirely...
Looking into the numbers a little closer -
Perhaps a large portion of the part-time jobs are that of TWO of these positions being held by ONE person, and in fact, what appears to be the employment of two people is only one person working both jobs.
The actual numbers of “new hires” may not be as good as first imagined. A “new hire” just may be an “already hired” working somewhere else.
This is not a “recovery” or even a “double-dip” recession, it is a DEPRESSION, and for so long as the Current Regime squatting in the White Hut keeps trying to “fix” things, it shall only continue, until we turn into Greece. Or worse, Egypt.
“I wonder if any of those downsized workers will have a chance to be rehired when Obamacare is delayed or doesn’t go through entirely...”
From what I have seen reported by employers once they are comfortable operating efficiently and effectively with part-timers and continue to make profits, the business owners will no longer need to go back to full time employees.
Yes, it is nothing new in today’s depressed economy that employers are in the ‘drivers seat’ when it comes to hiring any new workers if necessary.
There's always a chance a part-time worker could be offered full time work but the way Obamacare has been implemented will probably put them off of considering it. I wouldn't be surprised to see them make it illegal or impose fines to switch them back to part-time by executive order or bureaucratic fiat, regardless of the businesses justification.
Increasingly businesses are subject to an onerous regulatory burden that is arbitrary and capricious, and removed from oversight by elected representatives.
As a fellow FReeper said: McDonalds used to have 30 people working 40 hours per week. Now they have 40 people working 30 hours per week.
When I see the pictures of the people wandering the streets of third world countries in torn and tattered rags, starving and depressed I feel that I am looking into the future of America. Picture the streets of India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the cities of most of the countries of Africa, South and Central America. We are going to look like the commercials for the “Feed a Child” ads before this is over.
Or we could end up seeing massive protests starting in D.C. and around the country demanding “real change” BIGTIME.
You make a real good point. Part-time jobs should count as the fraction of a job that they are.
0bama Care will be like that. Partial recovery from illness will be enough. If treatment doesn’t kill you it will be hailed as a glorious victory for the program.
That is an excellent point.
A part-time job is not a full-time job, and should not count as a full-time job.
A part-time job could count as .5 of a full-time job.
I’m serious.
Unemployment report in a nutshell: the Taco Bell that had 30 40 hour workers now has 40 30 hour workers.— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) July 5, 2013
Taco Bell; see my previous.
It’s a keep because it is so true. We’ve read one announcement after another of company after company reporting cutbacks.
To any thinking person, there is no doubt it is going on. Many will only drink the Obama Kool-Aid, however.
...and not even for them.
Too bad Mortgage, car and utility payments aren't part time.
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