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Only 1-in-10 Finds Work, Middle-Aged Workers Hit Hardest
Townhall.com ^ | June 26, 2012 | Bob Beauprez

Posted on 06/26/2012 8:04:00 AM PDT by Kaslin

At the White House on June 8, 2012 Barack Obama uttered six words that will forever haunt and define him; "the private sector is doing fine."   His absurd statement came on the heels of a horrific May jobs report,  an increase in the unemployment rate to 8.2%, retail sales declined for the second straight month, consumer confidence dropped for the third consecutive month, the number of job openings available dropped by 8%, etc., etc., etc. 

Fine?  How bad would it have to be for him to admit things were at least a little tough for the folks who live outside the DC Beltway?

The evidence that Obama is out of touch is overwhelming, and in the middle of a re-election campaign that is almost totally about the economy, it is hard for him to make a convincing argument that "I feel your pain" if he doesn't even believe any pain exists.

Here's some more economic evidence to ponder.  There are 12.7 million Americans currently unemployed, and another 10 million are under employed or have left the workforce in frustration.  Of the unemployed still looking for work, 5.4 million, or 42.8%, have been out of work for six months or longer; the definition of long-term unemployed.   "While the share of long-term unemployment is down a bit from its peak last year, it's still at record-high levels," reported CNN Money.  The average length of time it takes to get a job is also at record levels hovering "around 40 weeks for the past year." 

The data also reveals more of the agony of Obama's non-recovering recovery.  "In the first few weeks after losing their jobs, about 3 in 10 people are able to find work.  But after about a year of being out of work, the chances of landing a job fall to just 1 in 10 per month," according to the CNN Money report.

Further, middle-aged workers, typically in the "prime years for earning and building wealth," are experiencing "a rate of long-term unemployment that is unprecedented in modern U.S. history," according to newly published analysis by the Wall Street Journal:

"Much of the attention during the prolonged U.S. employment crisis has been on high rates of joblessness among young people. Less noticed, but no less significant to many economists, has been the plight of the middle-aged. More than 3.5 million Americans between the ages of 45 and 64 were unemployed as of May, 39% of them for a year or more—a rate of long-term unemployment that is unprecedented in modern U.S. history, and far higher than among younger workers…"

"As of May, the unemployment rate for people ages 45 to 64 was 6%, some 10 points lower than for people under 25. But the lower rate disguises the fact that when middle-aged people lose their jobs, it's much harder for them to find a new one. Those between 45 and 64 take almost a year on average to find a job, more than two months longer than workers between 25 and 44." Read more here.

The WSJ also tells the unusually grim struggle for middle-aged workers with the following graphic that provides comparative data to previous recessions since the end of World War II. link here



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 2012; bhoeconomy; democrats; economy; obama; socialistdemocrats; unemployment

1 posted on 06/26/2012 8:04:00 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

As long as Whitie is getting hammered, it is all fine with Bambi!


2 posted on 06/26/2012 8:06:06 AM PDT by Redleg Duke ("Madison, Wisconsin is 30 square miles surrounded by reality.", L. S. Dryfus)
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To: Kaslin

The only person I truly hope will soon become unemployed is obama.


3 posted on 06/26/2012 8:06:41 AM PDT by MissEdie (America went to the polls on 11-4-08 and all we got was a socialist thug and a dottering old fool.)
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To: Kaslin
I got tired of begging to potential employers for a salary job & used my 401k to start my own business.

They can keep their sustenance wages & miserable cubical culture. I may not do any better materially now but there's at least hope that I will.

4 posted on 06/26/2012 8:09:58 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: skeeter

‘I got tired of begging to potential employers for a salary job”

I know the feeling. I’m 58 and I had to reinvent myself 3 years ago. I’m working twice as hard for half the money but holding my head above water. I have two part-time teaching jobs. I set my own hours and decide when and where I want to work. Let go of pride and do what is necessary.

Good luck to you!!!!!!!


5 posted on 06/26/2012 8:18:21 AM PDT by Huskrrrr ( the will)
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To: Huskrrrr
Professional pride was the first thing to go!

Thanks, & good luck to you as well.

6 posted on 06/26/2012 8:27:20 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: Kaslin
It's a conundrum for industry: The tail end of the Boomers are experienced, expensive, but not motivated, and often not current tech-wise. The Gen X crowd has some experience and is fairly up to date tech-wise, but they, too, are expensive, are spoiled with some of the Boomer's laziness and ripe for offshoring. The Gen Y boom is cheap and tech-savvy, but inexperienced and borderline illiterate.

Time, cost savings, and the promise of an indentured working class, courtesy of student loans, ensures that Gramps will be sent to Carousel sooner rather than later.

The message from both the Romney and Obama camps to the over-40 crowd seems to be "Hurry up and die, already!"

The world will go on, but it will be a grubbier, uncouth, almost Feudal existence a decade hence.

I just want to sell the business when I'm 50 and find a nice Christian community in which to settle far, far away from the zombies.

7 posted on 06/26/2012 8:36:15 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (Goode over evil. Voting for mitt or obie is like throwing your country away.)
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To: Kaslin
Bush.
His fault.
Damn him.
8 posted on 06/26/2012 8:50:05 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("Gentlemen, you can't fight in here - this is the War Room".)
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To: Sirius Lee
The Gen Y boom is cheap and tech-savvy, but inexperienced and borderline illiterate.

They can't spell without a spell checker, and they don't care. I had developer send code for review yesterday - he spelled "Exclusion" as "Exlusion", "Ekslusin", "Excusion", snd "Ecloosin". BTW, he doesn't want to fix it because it doesn't matter, "work already", and "managent want this". How does he know this? I can't tell - he didn't provide any test cases or test results. He told his manager (also another Gen Y illiterate) that I wanted to "break his code" by asking for changes to "stuff that work already"...She wants to know why I don't "respect his hard work".

9 posted on 06/26/2012 8:57:22 AM PDT by no-s (when democracy is displaced by tyranny, the armed citizen still gets to vote)
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To: Psalm 73

Bush.
His fault.
Damn him.

lol. That dang guy has not worked in 3 1/2 years...must be in that middle age category....What a lazy butt..../sarc.


10 posted on 06/26/2012 9:50:22 AM PDT by napscoordinator
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To: no-s
They can't spell without a spell checker, and they don't care.

Though in all fairness, this is nothing new. In the late 60s, my dad hired a guy who had a HS diploma (from the same HS where I graduated!) but was nearly illiterate. He was an OK worker, but some of his writing was actually amusing; for example, he spelled "shovel" as "chuvel" -- and that was in the days before spell checkers. More of a reflection on what he learned in HS, I guess.

11 posted on 06/26/2012 9:51:09 AM PDT by Fast Moving Angel (A moral wrong is not a civil right: No religious sanction of an irreligious act.)
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To: Kaslin

It’s really bad here. I’m a scientist with many years of experience and an excellent work record and I can’t find anything but low-paying dead-end service jobs. I have a friend who’s an IT specialist and he’s been unemployed since October of ‘10.


12 posted on 06/26/2012 9:59:54 AM PDT by Renfield (Turning apples into venison since 1999!)
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To: Kaslin

Four and a half more months.


13 posted on 06/26/2012 11:38:18 AM PDT by unsycophant
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To: Kaslin

No worries here-—800,000 some new immigrants will get a lot of those jobs and fer sure, that’ll be 800K new voters for the obamantion.


14 posted on 06/26/2012 5:11:31 PM PDT by BOBTHENAILER (EPA will ruin your life)
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Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

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