U.S. blue collar army chases few vacancies (Hope and Change)

Reuters ^ | Oct 23, 2009 | Ed Stoddard

[bogusname]

DALLAS (Reuters) - For every open construction job in America, there are more than 20 people lining up to apply.

Few statistics illustrate the gravity of the U.S. recession as clearly as the yawning gap between job seekers and vacancies, highlighting the struggle President Barack Obama has had to contain job losses since he took over in January.

Research by Andrew Sum, a labor economist at Boston's Northeastern University, shows that the ratio of unemployed persons to job openings has widened in America to 5.7 to 1 in August of this year from 1.2 to 1 in December of 2000.

For construction workers the ratio is an eye-popping 22.1 to one, while for manufacturing it is 13 to 1. In December of 2000 these same ratios were 3.5 and 1.7 respectively.

"Basically what we are saying is that there is a massive labor surplus in the United States ... and the working class is getting crushed," Sum told Reuters in a telephone interview...

[VeniVidiVici]

"Basically what we are saying is that there is a massive labor surplus in the United States ... and the working class is getting crushed," Sum told Reuters in a telephone interview...

And Osama is doing nothing to help it by declaring war on the people that help fund business and not giving a damn about doing anything to the tax code (other than RAISE taxes) to urge people to start new businesses.

The Democrats are driving this country into the ground.

[Frantzie]

I saw this coming before the election.

[Buckeye McFrog]

close your eyes, click your heels together and repeat
after me...

Democrats are the Party of the Working Man
Democrats are the Party of the Working Man
Democrats are the Party of the Working Man