According to the Seattle Times Business section, the Jobless rate within the State of Washington has risen to 9.2% for August 2009.
According to Drew DeSilver, a Seattle Times business reporter, “The state lost another 8,000 jobs in August, bringing the total loss since the recession began to 128,800.”
Yet, the Salt Lake Tribune reports the following optimism among the growing concern over the unemployment of American Workers nationwide:
Despite an optimistic assessment about the recession’s end by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and a report showing retail sales up by the largest amount in more than three years, the byword on Tuesday was still one of caution.
Economists warned that as long as credit stays tight and jobs remain scarce, Americans probably aren’t ready to spend in force again. And Bernanke advised that even though the worst recession since the 1930s is probably over, pain — especially for the nearly 15 million unemployed Americans — will persist.
Bernanke, cautioning that it would be many months before unemployment rates would drop significantly, added that “it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time, as many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was.”
The unfortunate reality is that many people are going into “survival mode” of living. A time when being prudent is more reasonable and expected than over-extending oneself.
The other reality is that those who are like myself, and are out of work are fighting to find whatever employment opportunities may avail themselves. It just very well might be that the only available jobs are those that are low paying entry level positions. Lay off’s still projected to occur, the instability of our economy, the ongoing debate over Health Care reform, and the delusional aspects of those who think life is getting better are not helping anything.
Here is my question and issue I have currently is regarding something President Barack Obama stated. During his inaugural address, President Obama stated the following: “The state of our economy calls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth.” Where is this bold and swift action to create new jobs that will help put unemployed American’s out of work? Think about this for a moment. Think about the context in which this is stated, and what he declared were the major crisis our nation faces, one of them is the rising rate of jobs being lost due to the volatility of our economy.
Seriously, since Obama had taken office, the major focus so far is the long disputed Health Care Reform that Obama wants to pass. To me, this seems to be an issue that ought to not be the most pressing issue to address and attempt to resolve. Yes, I agree that Health Care in our country is always had problematic issues, however, why worry about Health Care when people are still losing their jobs? Why not work on the most pressing issue that is affecting the American people and the Economy.
Forget Health Care Reform, we need Labor Reform. Something that ought to take first priority over anything else in our country.
Now, I understand that it will take time, it will take money, but if we are wanting to vest in the future of our Economy, re-establish a thriving and stronger economy, we need to put American’s back to work.
Yet, where are these new jobs? How could our government expect the American people to pay for even a Government single payer option if they don’t have a means to even support themselves? How could families survive on a mere $10.00 per hour when their rent, mortgage, or necessary bills are far greater than their income?
Granted, there is the reality that the American Corporations had become money hungry, and to which Obama stressed that the reason for our Economic downfall was the cause of greed and irresponsibility:
Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.
One thing that is momentous in Obama’s first months of taking the Presidential office was the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. An overview is given at the Department of Labor’s website as to what this act is provisioned to accomplish:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) was signed into law by President Obama on February 17th, 2009. It is an unprecedented effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century. The Act is an extraordinary response to a crisis unlike any since the Great Depression, and includes measures to modernize our nation’s infrastructure, enhance energy independence, expand educational opportunities, preserve and improve affordable health care, provide tax relief, and protect those in greatest need.
While this Act is an important step toward Economic growth and recovery, there still seems to be the reality that many people have gone down to one too zero income. This puts a financial strain on an already vulnerable economic situation that we are trying to climb out of. And, as the overview understanding of this act, Jobs will gradually increase over two to three years time span. And, in the meantime, unemployment benefits, education support is being offered to those who are unemployed. However, all good these intentions are, there is not a realistic immediate growth to provide the necessary need to springboard our economy back into a growing and vital strong marketplace.
And, furthermore, when we employ the trickle effect, those who are unemployed and have already lost their jobs very well could increase the already bulging homeless population. In fact, due to the surge of foreclosures, many American’s are loosing their homes and becoming homeless. Some of these families are actual renter’s who are current on their rent {see Foreclosure to Homelessness 2009: The Forgotten Victims of the SubPrime Crisis}
Within the rise of the unemployment rate, we go right into the Health Care issue. Thus, in my perspective, the Government should aggressively revitalize the Employment and Labor Crisis first, then move over to a more meaningful and substantial debate over the Health Care crisis and ways to resolve and bring Health Care Reform to the American people.
Thus, here are my suggestions to accomplish this:
1. The Federal Government should aggressively require state employment agencies to create a list of unemployed workers, their skills and qualifications where they are matched up with Jobs that are within the unemployed worker’s skill set.
An example would be, in my experience, I have retail sales, customer service/Call Center experience, Help Desk/Technical support experience, construction, production/warehouse experience, and food industry experience. Thus, as a potential candidate, the Washington State Worksource would act in a manner where they would “refer me” over to a position like the Temporary Staffing Firms used to do when you signed up for employment. This would remove the flooding of applicants and applications that would typically flood the desk of the human resources department/email account.
So, say for instance, where I currently reside, there is Comcast Call Center, At&T Call Center, WDS Global, SpeakEasy, Safeco, Verizon, Verizon Wireless, and AllTel Wireless. Since I have experience in the Wireless Industry, coupled with Technical Support, the local worksource would find out how many employment opportunities there are within each one of these companies. If there are openings within these particular businesses, then a Worksource Agent would ask me to come in and discuss the opportunity, the pay, and the start date.
Hypothetically, this would be an aggressive way to fill current vacancies where there is a demand of people. And fulfilling these vacancies would be accomplished by those who currently possess any form of the skills necessary to do the functions of the Job. In turn, this will quickly move an individual from unemployment to employment. And, once employed, the ripple effect will take hold and become a logical numbers game.
So, ten people are referred to an employer to start work based on their experience to do the job, these ten individuals then are able to bring in income to their homes, revitalizing their homes, being able to be productive and part of society, begin to pay off their respective debts, in turn generating business and more need for further fulfillment of vacancies and create new jobs because of the demand on the economy where people are now becoming more and more sustainable.
The other aspect of this is regulate the hiring process of major corporations. Currently, when an applicant fills out an online application, they go through a series of tests. One of these tests is a behavioral measurement test. The candidate will not have the results and therefore will not know how they fair and whether or not this contributed to them not getting hired because someone else had results that exceeded theirs. This test is too subjective and ought not to be discarded and forced out of the hiring process.
To top this off, employers also run a full comprehensive background check. Thus, if you have bad credit because of financial irresponsibility, or in the case of recent unemployment crisis, not able to keep up with one’s financial obligations, this creates a red flag and the hiring manager will pass over an individual with poor credit score because others have a higher credit score that is favorable. This is financial discrimination and ought to be regulated and done away with given the volatility of our economy. Why should someone’s credit rating further place them at the bottom of a hiring pool to further strain our economy as is? Makes no sense to me.
Now, I agree, criminal background check is necessary because of the recent rise in Domestic Violence, Crimes against Humanity and recently released and those out on probation contribute to a need for employers to protect their current employee’s however, one can never predict human behavior and how people react in any given situation that is confrontational. We are emotionally based beings and naturally have a fight or flight mechanism that is a very innate aspect of our humanity. No tests and background checks will resolve potential time bombs that are waiting to explode in the work place.
Once those who possess skills because of previous experienced are put back to work, the results would most likely become instantaneous because when Americans are working, the economy will grow and prosper. People will begin to spend more, which will in turn naturally create more jobs, because of the Economic basis of Supply and demand. When you have more workers, the demand to capitalize on the prosperity of the American people will become a natural side affect by putting hard working American’s back to work.
And, finally, I understand that all this is speculative and hypothetical and may need further development, but logically, it makes sense to me. Regulate companies to hire those with previous experience, break down the barriers that prevent a prospective employee from achieving a good paying job by regulating that businesses refrain from performing credit checks, and place it on the State Employment Agencies to search out job opportunities that match the skills of prospective clients and use these state agencies like Temporary Agencies by putting people back to work.
That is a Labor Reform I would like to see, a Labor Reform that will ultimately address the Health Care issue that plagues us. For me, it makes sense, deal with the Labor Crisis right now, forget Health Care Reform and get the 15 million Americans back to work and see how a these 15 Million people will bring back our economy to a better and more stable state that surpasses all other country’s.
1 Comment
October 4, 2009 at 10:48 pm
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