According to the August 2, 2013 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) of the U.S. Department of Labor, the national unemployment rate fell to 7.4% in July from 7.6% in June. The unemployment of Blacks remains high at 12.6% and for Hispanics at 9.4%. Why this disparity during the reign of a biracial President who the press said was post-racial? When considering all aspects of the unemployment situation, the excitement of improvement wanes.
A headline on a recent edition of the Wall Street Journal read, “Low Wages Blur Job Picture.” Although 162,000 jobs were added in July, number of hours per week worked, average hourly pay and earnings declined. The greatest gains in job growth since 2011 have been in low paying categories such as leisure/hospitality, food service and temporary services Workforce participation has been declining consistently and over the past year 803,000 workers have given up and are no longer in the labor force. Welfare rolls should be screened to identify career recipients and move them into occupational training programs.
Manufacturing jobs must be added that will produce products for export to mitigate our trade imbalance. In 2012 the U.S. imported $729.6 billion more than we exported and in the first five months of 2013, the imbalance amounts to $278.4 billion.
One of the impediments to providing quality full time jobs is the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare. One of the unintended consequences of this overwhelming law that will command up to 26% of the budget by 2014 is uncertainty. The law is proving to be so abstruse that a portion relating to employers with more than 50 employees was postponed for a year. Restaurants are turning to part time workers with the addition of 93,000 per month compared with just 31,000 last year. A human resources company in Florida is helping restaurants ‘share’ employees so that each employer can avoid the insurance mandate.
The current administration continues to foil efforts at increasing employment by both obvious and obscure ways. For many months now, the President has steadfastly refused to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to be brought from Alberta, Canada to our Gulf Coast. Such a source of oil would be a boon both in construction and (refinery) processing over many years. In an interview recently, the President commented that the pipeline might bring 2,000 jobs for a year or two then 50 to 100 permanent jobs. TransCanada will invest $5.3 billion and says that the project will require about 13,000 jobs in construction with U.S. companies supplying pipe, pumps and other accessories at a cost of millions of dollars.
A more obscure loss of jobs came to light recently when it was discovered that our Department of Defense (DOD) is spending $1.5 billion for Russian helicopters to support the Afghan army. Why would we be doing Russia such a favor?
The key to a strong economy is the increase of employees in private industry. Each worker contributes to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that in 2012 amounted to $15.7 trillion. The U.S. is home to 4.5% of the world’s population but produces more than 21% of the world’s GDP. Our growth rate over the past three years has been just 2.4% annually while the global inflation rate increased about 3.9%. Stimulus ‘investment’ adds mostly to government jobs and local governments are adding jobs again. This is alarming because government jobs add costs without economic value. Public employee benefit obligations simply add to the debt problem.
There are 1,172 new regulations in 2012 at a cost for compliance of nearly $2 trillion. Healthcare costs will about double. New taxes and spending and a more ponderous national debt are pending. Is there a connection between the number of illegal aliens at about 11 million and the 11.5 million unemployed? Elected government officials are accepting no accountability for their misjudgments. Who in the world will help us when we self-destruct?
– Dick Baynton
