Free Republic

At 6.2%, the unemployment rate remains uncomfortably high.  And yet, companies are increasingly saying they're having a hard time finding workers.This statistic from the latest NFIB small business optimism survey really drives home the disconnect. Note the highlighted part of the text below:NFIB owners increased employment by an average of 0.01 workers per firm in July (seasonally adjusted), the tenth positive month in a row and the best string of gains since 2006. Seasonally adjusted, 13 percent of the owners (up 1 point) reported adding an average of 2.9 workers per firm over the past few months. Fifty-three percent of...

It’s “Pomp and Circumstance” time for 1.6 million US college graduates. While members of the class of 2014 have some cause to celebrate, they also know they are a few short months away from starting to pay down their share of the $1 trillion-plus student-loan debt. The most shocking number of all is that only 17 percent of these soon-to-be grads have a job lined up, according to AfterCollege Inc., which crunches these numbers and also tries to help match employers with recent graduates. Despite our being a year further along on the road to economic recovery, this year’s 17...

<p>We are happy to announce that the job market is officially fixed.</p> <p>It was almost exactly a year ago when we reported that Delta Airlines received 22,000 applications for 300 flight attendant jobs in the first week after posting the positions outside the company. The applications arrived at a rate of two per minute. Said otherwise, the precious few lucky hires had overcome an acceptance ratio of 1.3%. Putting this into perspective, the acceptance ratio at Harvard, the lowest of any university, is 5.9%.</p>

Traders confused: is the job market improving, or not? Markets were volatile again today, this time on signs that the jobs market may not be as strong as some hoped. A report on private sector employment by ADP was weaker than expected, as was an employment gauge released as part of a survey of purchasing managers in the services industry. That is causing some to consider lowering their estimates for Friday's critical May jobs report. This is confusing, because Fed officials have been talking about tapering their purchases of bonds as the job market improves. So which is it? To...

Today's college graduates carry an average student loan balance of $25,000. Is college and a mountain of debt the only path to employment?Public Policy Promotes College. Though the majority of jobs today require specialized training beyond the high school level, many jobs do not require a four-year degree. In fact, economists have noted that degrees serve as credentials on a potential employee’s resume, but they are no guarantee of needed skills.1 The federal government has poured billions of dollars into college aid to those who want to pursue a college degree. The U.S. Department of Education now makes below market-rate...

Welcome Back Carter: U.S. workforce participation rate collapses to level not seen since 1979. So why again do we need millions of foreign workers added to the labor market?- by John HillStand With ArizonaWebsite | Facebook | Twitter Even Obama-defenders admit it: this morning's employment number was a "punch to the gut". So said former Obama chief economic adviser Austin Goolsbee on CNBC. No way to spin it. Job gains were only 88,000 - below even the lowest Wall St. estimate of 100k - the biggest miss in estimates since December 2009, and the lowest job growth in 10 months....

Because we have discussed the issue of the age-bifurcated US jobs market extensively before, we are delighted to not have to say much if anything this time around, as absolutely everything is still the same. Since the arrival of Obama, the US workforce has been effectively split into two separate job markets: those 54 and younger (condolences) and those 55 and older. Specifically, since January 2009, the number of jobs created has been focused solely on the gerontocratic component of the US labor pool, those aged 55 to 69 (or more - gray line below), and who can no...

Full time work is about to get scarcer. The reason? By hiring part-time workers who put in less than 30 hours per week, employers can avoid a mandate dictated by the new health reform law: either provide expensive health insurance or pay a fine equal to $2,000 per worker. Avoiding the mandate becomes even more attractive for low-wage employees, since they can get highly subsidized insurance in the newly created health insurance exchanges. Clearly the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is a major factor holding back economic recovery. But it’s not alone. Other public policies enacted during the Obama administration’s first...

Via Charles Hugh-Smith of Of Two Minds blog,The paradox of an advanced post-industrial economy is that the number of jobs needed declines even as the cost of living rises.The fundamental dynamic of America's job market is simple: we need relatively few workers to provide the absolute essentials of life even as the cost-basis of the economy inexorably rises. In other words, there are fewer jobs even as the costs of maintaining a "middle class" life rise.Let's start by observing how all the financial data in the world does not necessarily describe the primary dynamics of an economy. There are...

This year's college graduates have better career prospects than their peers did a year ago—as long as they're looking in the private sector. Employers plan to hire 19% more new graduates this year than in 2010, according to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. That means students were more likely to have offers as they head toward graduation. Among college seniors who applied for positions, the survey said, 41% had an offer this year, up from 38% last year. (snip) ...some degrees are far more valuable than others. Computer science, accounting, economics and engineering majors were...

The individual stories are familiar. The chemistry major tending bar. The classics major answering phones. The Italian studies major sweeping aisles at Wal-Mart. Now evidence is emerging that the damage wrought by the sour economy is more widespread than just a few careers led astray or postponed. Even for college graduates — the people who were most protected from the slings and arrows of recession — the outlook is rather bleak. Employment rates for new college graduates have fallen sharply in the last two years, as have starting salaries for those who can find work. What’s more, only half of...

The biggest changes in family life sometimes happen gradually. New employment data suggest one such seismic change is upon us: Job-holding patterns between the generations have turned upside down. In the past, Grandma and Grandpa tended to retire to a life of leisure in their sixties, while teenagers were expected to work. As recently as 2000, boys ages 16 and 17 were far more likely to hold paying jobs than their grandparents ages 65 to 69. But just a decade later, that picture has turned upside down: Grandpa is twice as likely to be working as Junior. Based on new...

Be very careful before diving into an MBA program right now. Even students from the top MBA schools are frequently without job offers, and those in mid-tier schools are jobless in droves as shown below in the chart from Econompic. You can see the rate of graduates' joblessness in red. Now we're pretty sure that MBA's from top schools will always benefit their recipients, if only for the network of contacts they build for the long-term. However, those considering lower- or mid-tier schools should do some serious homework into the financial cost because as shown above you could very well...

A boogeyman is usually thought of as an imaginary figure causing fear. However, in the case of President Obama, the figure is real. He is causing a loss of confidence in the future among American businessmen and consumers.

Are we about to see a wave of Americans giving up on the labor market? The Bureau of Labor Statistics' June jobs report saw the labor market lose 652,000 workers -- a defection so large that it caused the nation's unemployment rate to drop from 9.7% to 9.5%, not because jobs were created, but because the number of people in the workforce declined. In fact, workers left the labor force so fast that they seem to have bypassed categories the unemployed usually fall into before they finally leave the workforce due to frustration. The number the government uses to track...

Today’s job release showed a very surprising pattern: Compared to a year ago, the labor market for foreign-born workers appears to have improved. Meanwhile, the labor market for native-born workers appears to have worsened compared to a year agoForeign born workers had an unemployment rate of 8.6% in May 2010, compared to 9.1% a year in May 2009. Native-born workers had an unemployment rate of 9.5% in May 2010, compared to 9.0% a year ago.Let’s look at the changes over the past few months. In this chart, remember that the unemployment rate is not seasonally adjusted. The unemployment rate...

<p>The time is late 2009. In a small mid-western town an interviewer is asking a household member questions that will classify him as either working, unemployed, or out of the labor force in the government's monthly employment survey.</p> <p>Having determined that the respondent is not employed, the interviewer asks if he wants and is available for work and has looked for a job in the past four weeks. The respondent replies, yes, he wants and is available for work, but he hasn't looked for a job for some time.</p>

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's ambassador to the United States said Friday he expects immigration reform is unlikely to pass in that country in 2010 because of unemployment and midterm elections. In an unusually frank assessment, Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan said Mexico will continue its quiet, "under the radar" lobbying for a reform that would benefit...Mexicans living in the United States. A large percentage are undocumented. "It's not that it is unachievable. It is possible, but it will be difficult," he told a news conference...."If the (U.S.) economy grows, but there continues to be the unemployment and the job losses that occurred...

To call 2009 an interesting year for management education is perhaps an understatement bordering on the extreme. With the global financial crisis taking its toll on everything from the MBA job market and endowments to financial aid and the reputation of the MBA degree itself, 2009 promises to go down in history as a year to forget. For students and graduates of MBA programs, 2009 was the year that jobs and internship offers became harder to find, even at the top schools; a year when the scarcity of student loans and visas for international students threatened to derail even the...

Employers and career experts see a growing problem in American society — an abundance of college graduates, many burdened with tuition-loan debt, heading into the work world with a degree that doesn't mean much anymore. The problem isn't just a soft job market — it's an oversupply of graduates. In 1973, a bachelor's degree was more of a rarity, since just 47% of high school graduates went on to college. By October 2008, that number had risen to nearly 70%. For many Americans today, a trip through college is considered as much of a birthright as a driver's license. Marty...