Jobs report today and some thoughts

I hope you had a great holiday season. Don't have much time today and it has been awhile. I need to start the post holiday clean up.

The jobs report came out today and showed modest increase in jobs, however, most commentary says not what expected. Analysts are saying shows modest growth for 2011. One article shows unemployment down to 9.4%, but attributes the decline percentage more to people that stopped looking than the addtional jobs for December.

If you have read my original post you know I am attempting to maintain positive statements in my posts. This time though I am going to discuss more policy ideas than anything else, of course with a bit of my normal bashing of Democrats and Republicans. If you check the dates you notice I just started this blog, however, my thoughts on our country's employment situation have been welling up inside my head for two years now. Today I will try and hold this post to two separate aspects of the employment situation over the last two years.

The first discussion is around the unemployment situation and how the both recent Presidents and Congress have handled the situation, however, Mr Bush was on his way out when it all started.To me a great opportunity to change our entire mindset on how we handle any type of crisis was missed.And a great opportunity to start changing how we handle people in need in our country.

Republicans always are saying we need less government and I am in total agreement. Democrats are always creating large bureacracies and programs to handle the needs of the people who get left behind in a capitalistic society. Neither group tries to stop the madness though. We have to accept that if we live a nation that believes both in capitalism and Christian values that we still need to take care of the people who aren't successful in their life and perserve the opportunity for their children to have an opportunity to be successful in our society. Many ways to do this, but for now I am going to use the current/recent unemployment crisis to illustrate some philosophical ideas to combine free market while continuing to maintain opportunity for all.

Now to be honest the following isn't all original ideas, they have been hashed around for decades. One of the reasons I don't accept the Republicans and Democrats in Congress is because they refuse to use good information to make good policy. And good policy would benefit both parties' constituents.

So here goes. The government has been extending unemployment benefits out long past the historic 6 months. I have heard talk about there being some programs for job training etc to help out the unemployed, but haven't seen much. What has happened is President Obama had to make a deal with Congress to extend unemployment benefits longer and give a tax break well to people who really don't need it as much as the middle class. Yes I believe in tax breaks for all, but right now our super wealthy are hoarding money. We need it back in the economy so tax breaks to corporations and small businesses to develop new products and new business is where are tax breaks should have gone, but this is another story,

Back to the unemployment situation. The government from the time it realized there was going to be an unemployment crisis should have changed its mindset on how to handle the problem. And again these thoughts were out there. Most experts were in agreement that unemployment was going to be a multi year problem pretty early on in the recession. Yet you heard time and time again there were jobs just no one qualifed to fill them. I saw this looking for a job, medical profession, IT, and some other industries were all that was posted for months. We needed to create a program where people receiving unemployment would be required to attend specific training classes and do part time apprenticeships. Maybe some aptitude testing would need to be done to match people up, but basically we should have created these programs. Basically people could still look for jobs in the field they wanted, but realistically they need to be retrained if they couldn't find a job. So people may say, but you are forcing them to do something and they are losing their rights. Not really, again they can look for jobs of their choice so if things improve and they get a job then they can get off unemployment and not be required to attend training anymore. Okay some will argue isn't that a waste of training money, yes it is some, but the long run benefits of most people being retrained into an industry they have an aptitude for with some interest, vs receiving unemployment for over a year and not having the ability to rejoin the marketplace outweighs those training losses. The restructuring of the workforce does not take away any rights and the fact that a large majority would benefit from retraining to more marketable skills makes this a much more practical solution to our long term unemployment situation. Again job training etc would be required for all.

This can still be done, but our Congress just isn't into being practical. Think about this: if a person gets laid off and they are between the ages of 40-60, they are in a hard pressed situation. In many cases they were probably in mid management or had been in a skilled position that may not be needed as much as some other positions in our society.  They receive unemployment for over a year and have to pay for their bills, take care of family etc without a promising future. Yes they continue to look in fields where they have experience. What happened was there were less jobs as the economy makes the transition out of the recession in their previous field so you have too many applying for the same job. HR people have been overwhelmed with applications so much so they don't know what they have.  If we had changed policies from the beginning now you have hundreds of thousands of people being retrained, still receiving the same benefits, possibly some being hired into apprenticeships.to reduce the need for some of the benefits, and come 2011  you get a realistic unemployment drop maybe not down to 6 or 7% yet and maybe some significant underemployment, but the direction is real positive. Most people now are in new industries, some may get to stay in their old fields due to reduced applications for similar jobs, most people accept change if it benefits them, no one's rights were taken away, etc. The problem is that the upfront cost would be higher, but you know what; the old adage you get what you pay for comes into play. And when the economy does pick up their opportunities for advancement increase.

We need to teach our Congress how to think like this, it is our responsibility to hold our Congress to better policy. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican it is your responsibility to hold them accountable for their actions. To often we change ships for the sake of change without realizing it really didn't change anything. And I know you know this, so think about this for a bit. When was the last time you wrote your Congressman or woman? Via email or via snail mail, no I am not talking about the mass email barrages some special interest group gets you to do, I am talking about a serious few lines to make a point about practical policy in your own words, but sorry this is another aside from the job issue.

Anyway got to go, still have much in the brain trying to fight its way out, all my points get scattered and short changed because I sit down with other things to do, but I hope you get the gist of the point. Sometimes good  policy for our Congress is making decisions based on facts in front of them,. The answers are there they just need to be applied. Over time and many posts I hope to create better clarification. And unfortunately I really didn't get to my second point about the unemployment situation over the last couple of years but real quick here is a paragraph on my thoughts.

I cannot believe how much incompentcy has been put up with by companies. Really it has amazed me that some cleaning house hasn't taken place. Really all you C exs and up. Could you not think about what you have in front of you, over 8 million unemployed and you weren't thinking about some upgrades. I have been unemployed off and on over the last two years trying to find something permanent and I have met some really good recruiters, HR staff, managers, yet I have also seen some serious "what"  "really" situations. There have been some real "you have to get be kidding me moments" and here I am looking at myself wondering why am I the one looking for a job.( I am not saying I am a superstar, but I do know I could have done a much better job that what was put in front of me)

Yes you could have retrained me, I have been spending what little money I have going back to a community college to try and get some new skills, (have college degree) to start a new career. I know by talking to many people in that 40-60 age group most are trying some type of hap hazard retraining and yet we cannot get the help we need to move forward. Lot of talent out there being wasted because government is too short sighted and corporations aren't thinking and not just for my situation, but for hundreds of thousands of people it has been really disappointing.