Unemployment Experiencing A “Structural” Increase

We need a government for the people. Washington D.C. is out of touch with reality.

Until we get back to producing what we consume, I think we will be in trouble.

November 2, 2010 - just keep repeating it to yourself.

This permanent lack of job recovery because of the loss of jobs either to other countries or permanently is something I've figured was going to be a problem with the recovery.

What is scary is that it took years to build up those unemployment numbers, then years to lose them all and it will take years to get them back. Meanwhile, what do we do? How do you make a living, pay bills, eat, make repairs, buy gas, insurance and dare I say it....PAY YOUR MORTGAGE? We are in trouble. I do believe that OBAMA should make all his next efforts focused around housing and employment period. What good is health-care without the other two? I remember reading what President Bush said after the second plane crashed into the buildings...."We are at war! I do not want to hear about anything else except that. Make it your priority for this administration". That is what I would like Obama to do. Thank you John for a yummy post!

The changes we have seen in the last 14 months have built the structure of lower employment.  Shackling private enterprise with new taxes and mandates is NOT the way to bring back jobs. 

When Obama said he was going to have a laser-focus on jobs, did he say helping to create or destroy?  I don't recall...

John,

I saw this too and read it. It didn't sound encouraging; he was speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

Lane,
The problem came to a head by 8 years of irresponsibility under BUSH. Let's take away any regulation and let's let corporate America have a completely free market free from all constraints. In other words, lets have anarchy. Let's destroy unions, lets destroy workers, lets keep a THUMB on wages and make sure that no one but the fat cats make any money. Let's  keep the masses in the their proper place - in POVERTY! The crash happened under Bush, it started with republican deregulation which began during the Reagan years  and it will start to be unraveled and put to rights under Obama.  You LOST the election - because the people were finally smart enough for one moment in time to realize that they were being thrown off a cliff.

John, you do have a point about sharing the blame among politicians. However, the larger point that RuthMarie made, about the public vs. private sector financing of innovation, is what too many of us miss...those who want to cut taxes and free investors to use their money to stimulate the economy are missing the boat - those who have loads of money aren't "investing" their money by creating more and more jobs, by funding research at the same level that the federal government does. That's why they have so much money in the bank, and why the government's involvement is so fundamentally necessary, because the economy can't depend on all the "fat cats" to turn it around.

Hi John -- And since everything is local, here in Greater Cleveland, Ohio, where we have a heavier concentration of manufacturing, we have always (and the current recession is no different) been much longer ans slower to come out of a recession than the national averages.

Hello:

Excellent points made her. A fundamental shift is upon is, my friends. We better be ready!

What we are seeing in the Creater Cleveland OH Area is a increase in small businesses, many are comprised of one person with a home office.  I believe this is going to continue for the foreseeable future.

I don't see the "off-shoring" to be as big of a problem as many others do.  I can't source it right now, but I'd read that there were about 5x as many jobs "on-shored" (foreign companies employing Americans) as off-shored.  And I see the Japanese and German carmakers building here. 

While I think we need to strengthen our manufacturing, I also think that making it more expensive to employ Americans in America isn't a great strategy...

John - it's difficult to see anything positive with the unemployment issue when jobs are gone in manufacutring to other countries, other employers are running lean to keep their doors open.