From the article:
quote:"The job losses during the Great Recession were so off the chart, that even though we've gained about 600,000 private sector jobs back, we've got nearly 8 million jobs to go," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute.
Excluding temporary Census workers, the economy has added fewer than 100,000 jobs a month this year -- a much faster and stronger jobs recovery than occurred following the last two recessions in 2001 and 1991.
But even if that pace of hiring were to double immediately, it would take until 2013 to recapture the lost jobs. And the labor market very likely doesn't have years before it gets hit with the shock of the inevitable next economic downturn.
quote:It would take the creation of 10.6 million jobs immediately for the same percentage of the population to be working as was the case three years ago.
Of course, it will take time to create jobs. If it takes three years, more than 3.5 million additional jobs will be needed because of continued population growth.
Now...
14.6 million people are now out of work (8 million of those jobs were lost during the Great Recession) and the unemployment rate is 9.5%.
So how do we fix this?
Many of you will say the government needs to move out of the way and allow the free market to create all the jobs. Okay, but in what sector and why aren't jobs being created now?
Let me guess: Businesses need tax breaks to create more jobs, right? Well my answer to that is business owners and potential entrepreneurs can't predict with 100% accuracy what kind of taxes they'll pay in the long term no matter what (administrations change, you know).
And...
Existing companies came into this recession with huge cash balances. Translation: They've got the money to expand and hire now, so why aren't they? The fact is they are still hoarding their cash and giving pink slips and/or cutting hours and benefits to save more cash. They can't be waiting on tax breaks to expand.
More to think about...
Many educated professionals lost good-paying jobs in this recession. They have been left with no choice at this point but to apply for jobs they are overqualified for and are being turned down due to lack of hiring or fear the overqualified applicant will walk when the economy turns around.
Those who have accepted lower paying jobs are struggling. As an example, let's say Mr. Johnson used to make $40/hr before the recession. Now the only jobs he's being offered are for $8.00/hr. How does he pay bills on that? Who on earth can live on such a paltry wage in 2010? And this is happening; it's a story that's playing out over and over across the country.
(I'm not saying that anything LESS than $40/hr. is a paltry wage. I'm talking about someone whose education and experience is commensurate with that salary, as an example.)
So, please, enlighten me with your answers/suggestions to this crisis.