Posted on 07/27/2005 6:21:50 AM PDT by A. Pole
The June payroll jobs report did not receive much attention due to the July 4 holiday, but the depressing 21st century job performance of the U.S. economy continues unabated.
Only 144,000 private sector jobs were created, each one of which was in domestic services.
Fifty-six thousand jobs were created in professional and business services, about half of which are in administrative and waste services.
Thirty-eight thousand jobs were created in education and health services, almost all of which are in health care and social assistance.
Nineteen thousand jobs were created in leisure and hospitality, almost all of which are waitresses and bartenders.
Membership associations and organizations created 10,000 jobs, and repair and maintenance created 4,000 jobs.
Financial activities created 16,000 jobs.
This most certainly is not the labor market profile of a First World country, much less a superpower.
Where are the jobs for this year’s crop of engineering and science graduates?
U.S. manufacturing lost another 24,000 jobs in June. A country that doesn’t manufacture doesn’t need many engineers. And the few engineering jobs available go to foreigners.
Readers have sent me employment listings from U.S. software development firms. The listings are discriminatory against American citizens. One ad from a company in New Jersey that is a developer for many companies, including Oracle, specifies that the applicant must have a TN visa.
A TN or Trade NAFTA visa is what is given to Mexicans and Canadians who are willing to work in the United States at below prevailing wages.
Another ad from a software consulting company based in Omaha, Neb., specifies it wants software engineers who are H-1B transferees. What this means is that the firm is advertising for foreigners already in the United States who have H-1B work visas.
The reason the U.S. firms specify that they have employment opportunities only for foreigners who hold work visas is because the foreigners will work for less than the prevailing U.S. salary.
Gentle reader, when you read allegations that there is a shortage of engineers in America, necessitating the importation of foreigners to do the work, you are reading a bald-faced lie. If there were a shortage of American engineers, employers would not word their job listings to read that no American need apply and that they are offering jobs only to foreigners holding work visas.
What kind of country gives preference to foreigners over its own engineering graduates?
What kind of country destroys the job market for its own citizens?
How much longer will parents shell out $100,000 for a college education for a son or daughter who ends up employed as a bartender, waitress or temp?
And what parts of the rest of the economy have been growing faster ?
Total Gross Output increased by $3,827 Billion (3.82 Trillion) between 1998 and 2003. The following six categories in the output spreadsheet referred in the previous post were responsible for $2,847 Billion (2.85 Trillion) of the Total Gross Output.
Finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing Government Professional and business services Educational services, health care, and social assistance Retail trade Construction
The six categories represent 74.4% of the Total Output Growth between 1998 and 2003. These categories are services, real estate, and government.
These categories expanded on the back of record credit creation. They cannot continue and they are not long term wealth producing factors for our economy.
A router for woodworking costs $7.28 to manufacture. Wal-Mart sells it for $100. Is the problem with the American factory worker? (These are facts, by the way.)
"The argument that we are losing jobs in manufacturing due to productivity [increases] is inaccurate."
Why do say that? Nothing in the data you present on the declining *share* of Gross Domestic Product from the manufacturing sector supports this statement. The total (not relative) value of output in manufacturing has risen slightly since the most recent recession, but the total number of manufacturing jobs has continued to decline, as it has for 30+ years. It must be true, therefore, that output per worker ("labor productivity") is rising, as it has for 30+ years.
So full of Ostrich Optimism. Your head in the ground and ass in the air will not change economic realities.
Someone(s) cleans your bathroom and and calls you sir on a regular basis?
That will tend to skew your position on the subject at hand.
My point is simple and direct.
We are being "led" a group of colossal idiots.
And you, apparently. are more than happy to lope along behind them with tongue lolling out of your foolish mouth.
But then, maybe I would be too, were I posting from three blocks from the White House.
Well, then, get yourself elected and fix the problems, if you think you can do any better.
But then, maybe I would be too, were I posting from three blocks from the White House.
The American economy looks fine to me. Perhaps it isn't treating you well.
I confess to being called "sir" on a regular basis. This happens most frequently when I'm in "disguise" in a suit and tie.
I clean my own bathroom -- as everyone should -- on a regular basis, regardless of how much money they have in the bank. It is somewhat humbling, often thought provoking and tends to elicit bigger tips at restaurants.
Rest assured, we WILL get them.
[[What kind of country gives preference to foreigners over its own engineering graduates? What kind of country destroys the job market for its own citizens?]]
A country that suffers from a severe case of white liberal guilt and a country has has a death wish over diversity and multi-culturalism.
If we're becoming a third world country, does this mean other countries will stop asking us for money?
We haven't had a radically left wing administration for decades.
What do you call the Slick Willy and Hitlery stain on the presidency in the 1990's?
If you're waiting for a politician to motivate some kid glue to the sofa playing video games to suddenly take an interest in nano technology or international trade law, then you're going to have a long wait.
And, in any event, there are already plenty of kids out there -- first generation Americans -- who are more than happy to sacrifice video games in their youth for a rewarding career in their adult years.
This tired example is seriously out of place. In the original context, the obsolescence of the buggy made buggy whips unnecessary. In today's context, the cell phones, GPS devices, etc are still being created and manufactured. Electrical engineering and software are still relevant and required for the products. What we are eliminating are our own countrymen, who do indeed have the necessary up-to-date skills.
This is a greed issue, primary at the retail level. A woodworking router is manufactured in the US for $7.28; however it is sold for $100. That markup level is outrageous.
"... now we can't maintain our own Navy any longer."
The decline in Naval shipbuilding is the result of a *political* decision to have a smaller Navy, by half compared to 20 years ago. I can assure you that if the Congress decided to double the number of ships in the Navy (and the hidebound bureaucrats in the Pentagon went along with it), the folks at Newport News and Electric Boat would quickly put in place the infrastructure to respond to the increase in orders.
As for commercial shipbuilding, Newport News tried to get back into that product line in the early 1990's and quickly discovered two things: (1) it had no cost, productivity, or technological advantages over foreign yards; (2) there were no complementarities between commercial and military shipbuilding - in fact, quite the opposite, as their money-losing commercial business was siphoning off scarce, skilled workers from the military side.
Before Philips tossed me out on the curb, they had posted job listings at my facility for H1B visa holders ONLY.
I live in Texas, voted for Bush 4 times (held nose 2 times). Everyone and I mean EVREYONE I know is disgusted with Bush and the Bush GOP. Bush did nothing for Texas as Gov, but that's ok, at least he didn't have the power to screw things up, but he is screwing EVERYTHING up in D.C. Worst president since LBJ, if the Rats were not fringe commies, no GOP would ever be elected to office again after watching the Bush GOP for 5 years, G*d help us for the next three. Bush is far worst then Clinton. Clinton just gave the Chicom missle secrets, Bush is giving them our hold damn industrial base!
Outsourcing can even be a win if done to other countries where there really is rule of law, where cronyism and dirty dealing are not TOO excessive and where the Western way of thinking is if not the norm, at least accepted. The PRC - of course - meets none of these criteria.
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