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The Young and the Jobless
Wall Street Journal ^ | OCTOBER 3, 2009

Posted on 10/27/2009 9:23:35 AM PDT by ChessExpert

The Young and the Jobless

The minimum wage hike has driven the wages of teen employees down to $0.00.

Yesterday's September labor market report was lousy by any measure, with 263,000 lost jobs and the jobless rate climbing to 9.8%. But for one group of Americans it was especially awful: the least skilled, especially young workers. Washington will deny the reality, and the media won't make the connection, but one reason for these job losses is the rising minimum wage.

Earlier this year, economist David Neumark of the University of California, Irvine, wrote on these pages that the 70-cent-an-hour increase in the minimum wage would cost some 300,000 jobs. Sure enough, the mandated increase to $7.25 took effect in July, and right on cue the August and September jobless numbers confirm the rapid disappearance of jobs for teenagers.

The September teen unemployment rate hit 25.9%, the highest rate since World War II and up from 23.8% in July. Some 330,000 teen jobs have vanished in two months. Hardest hit of all: black male teens, whose unemployment rate shot up to a catastrophic 50.4%. It was merely a terrible 39.2% in July.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; economy; haha; hopeychangey; minimumwage; unemployment; unemploymentrate
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As predicted by economic theory, the unemployment rate of black teenagers soared (to 50.4%) due to the increase in the minimum wage.

Liberals find proof of racism and discrimination whenever they find statistics that do not favor blacks. So here it is, proof that Pelosi, Reid and Obama are racists. Liberals are racist.

Liberals regularly advance policies that hurt blacks. They raise the minimum wage, advance extreme green legislation, and take other actions that kill jobs, knowing that the greatest impact will be upon black Americans. Perhaps the greatest assault on Black Americans ever was the "War on Poverty." It incentivized illegitimacy and destroyed the black family. Blacks are still suffering from the legacy of the liberal war on the black family.

1 posted on 10/27/2009 9:23:35 AM PDT by ChessExpert
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To: ChessExpert

If there was ever a voting block that had to learn about empty promises from a candidate the hard way, this was the age group, and now they are learning. I wonder if they are losing HOPE with all this rotten CHANGE.


2 posted on 10/27/2009 9:26:14 AM PDT by ThePatriotsFlag (http://www.thepatriotsflag.com/- The Patriot's Flag - Trust...Pay Czar - Slippery Slope?)
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To: ChessExpert
Geeez...I can't even say how many times here on FR and from other sources that this was predicted to happen.

Can we please get the morons out of Washington?

3 posted on 10/27/2009 9:31:15 AM PDT by NMEwithin
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To: ChessExpert

The raise in the minimum wage has nothing to do with the current economic recession/depression....most states were already at or near the $7.25 per hr rate anyway. Most states had been raising the minimum wage before the feds started doing it

The Weird Sheet Urinal needs to do better research...


4 posted on 10/27/2009 9:33:26 AM PDT by UCFRoadWarrior (The Return of America)
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To: ThePatriotsFlag
Two years ago, my own daughter was earning less than one dollar per hour over the minimum wage at a day care center. As anyone who has taken care of infants and tots knows, this is not easy work. Your hamburger flipper may work like crazy during the lunch rush, but by 2 or 3 p.m., they are leisurely cleaning grills or dealing with a trickle of customers.

Not so with a good day care center worker. She was one of their best, if not their best employee, because she genuinely loved the kids and wasn't just working for a paycheck. She was genuinely disappointed when the raise she was promised didn't materialize because the management told her it had to go to the minimum wage workers to comply with the law.

So she told them they could cut their costs even further because she, one of the higher paid workers, was leaving and going back to school. She had taken all the classes she could get at the local community college and wasn't earning enough for her four year degree by working for such low pay. But the experience did get her a high paid nanny gig in New Jersey and the REAL money she earned in that year now has her back to a four year college full time without taking on another school loan.

Needless to say, she wasn't one of the 2-1 majority of the young who wasted their votes on Fuhrer Hopenchange last November.

5 posted on 10/27/2009 9:38:31 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: ChessExpert

The more they get hurt by the government the more they go to the government for help. When they lose their jobs because of government action they do not think past the datum that their employer fired them. The government did not fire them. The government merely made it impossible for employers to continue to employ them.


6 posted on 10/27/2009 9:39:23 AM PDT by arthurus ("If you don't believe in shooting abortionists, don't shoot an abortionist." -Ann C.)
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To: ChessExpert
But for one group of Americans it was especially awful: the least skilled....

Nah.....really?!?!?

7 posted on 10/27/2009 9:40:16 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: NMEwithin

The morons in Washington know what they are about. The more they stick it to minorities the more minority votes they get. It isn’t about helping them or allowing them to make themselves prosperous; it is about getting their votes.


8 posted on 10/27/2009 9:41:27 AM PDT by arthurus ("If you don't believe in shooting abortionists, don't shoot an abortionist." -Ann C.)
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To: ChessExpert

Is this the “Social Justice” Ted Kennedy was famed for championing?


9 posted on 10/27/2009 9:42:06 AM PDT by ALPAPilot
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To: UCFRoadWarrior

In a free market the recession would have driven the lowest wages down to a point that the employer could afford to continue to employ those people. Lots of other people have had their compensation reduced. There is one intractable group that is not permitted to suffer a diminution of wages. They lose their jobs instead.


10 posted on 10/27/2009 9:44:11 AM PDT by arthurus ("If you don't believe in shooting abortionists, don't shoot an abortionist." -Ann C.)
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To: dfwgator

“least skilled” also stands for the “hopeychangey Kool Aid drinkers”.


11 posted on 10/27/2009 9:45:33 AM PDT by max americana (i)
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To: ChessExpert

12 posted on 10/27/2009 9:45:40 AM PDT by God luvs America (When the silent majority speaks the earth trembles!)
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To: ChessExpert

More than the minimum wage, I figure that the 20M+ illegal immigration problem is sucking up jobs which would normally be a good fit for teenagers (as well as others)...


13 posted on 10/27/2009 9:47:00 AM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: ChessExpert

Remember:

EVERY increase in the minimum wage is tacked onto every union contract.

A SEIU person getting $25 for pushing a broom (+++ benefits) will be getting this 70 cents per hour, along with every other union.


14 posted on 10/27/2009 9:53:51 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles

BTW- the SEIU in San Fran, on the heels of the 70 cents increase is voting to strike there again.


15 posted on 10/27/2009 9:55:44 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ChessExpert

my high-school history teacher (considered a right-wing heretic even in that era) had it nailed. This is a deliberate plan by the Unions who don’t want the competition from young, unskilled, cheap entry-level labor.


16 posted on 10/27/2009 10:15:04 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: ChessExpert

“incentivized illegitimacy and destroyed the black family”
So very true. This is the root of the problem; these government programs create perpetual welfare addicts starting with one, then a family, then an entire generation.


17 posted on 10/27/2009 10:21:46 AM PDT by La.daddyrabbit (Born and bred in the briar patch. Liberalism is the sickness, the Democratic party is the asylum.)
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To: ChessExpert

just imagining a future where the fast-food drive-thrus are all manned by SEIU members...

Screw the pickle, cram your lettuce
Youse had better not upset us
It’s 12:05 they have to let us
All go on break

So you’ve been waiting for an hour
Feel the wrath of Union power
By the sink our boss will cower
Or we’ll set him straight

Have it our way
Give us more pay
Have it our way
Give us more pay
Have it our way...


18 posted on 10/27/2009 10:22:33 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: ChessExpert

It’s been deliberate from the beginning - I guess all these poor children will have no choice but to enter......AMERICORPS!...our new civilian security force.

Some of the money that was supposed to go to summer programs was only for “minority or disadvantaged” students.


19 posted on 10/27/2009 10:36:25 AM PDT by oldmomster
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To: arthurus

In a free market the recession would have driven the lowest wages down to a point that the employer could afford to continue to employ those people. Lots of other people have had their compensation reduced. There is one intractable group that is not permitted to suffer a diminution of wages. They lose their jobs instead.


Go back and read my post. Your economic theory does not match the economic fact that most states had already raise the minimum wage


20 posted on 10/27/2009 11:44:43 AM PDT by UCFRoadWarrior (The Return of America)
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