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?
Another chimera. This has always been the case when it comes to publicly traded companies. American businesses have always been oriented towards short term, as opposed to European ones, for instance (and where did it get them). Long-term planning is a dream of every rational human being, as you undoubtedly are --- it is really intellectually appealing. Nobody has ever been able to implement it, however, and many slided into socialism. By being short-term oriented, American businesses remain agile and are FORCED to respond quickly to changing circumstances. Long-term planners cannot.
Finally, you misplace the blame: it is the investors that put pressure on short-term performance, and management merely responds to it.
emphasizes short-term, quick profits, inflating share prices You cannot "inflate" share prices: you can make shares worthy of being purchased. You may want to be aware of the fact that this is precisely what management was hired to do. Just like you, it is merely doing its job.
>(which makes bonuses offered in the form of stock options pay off)
This is socialist garbage, please excuse me. Again, even if it were true, why would boards continue to pay those bonuses? Why would the investment community not be able to see through the profits that you claim to be artificial.
Like many, you appear to view management as following some self-serving goals. This is patently false.
by whatever means are handy and quick, avoiding risk,
How have you determined they that avoid risk?
and avoiding long-term investment. How have you determined that?
These latter two contribute most directly to the decline in R&D activities. R&D investment is much like you savings for Christmas presents: as much as you want to make nice gifts, you do it only to the extent that you can afford. The same is with R&D in companies.
When was the last time you saw your companies accounting books?
More socialist propaganda that you have apparently succumbed to. Health benefits are the highest they've ever been in American history. That is one of the problems with labor costs: by demanding the ever greater benefits, we price ourselves out of the market.
Now, calculate how much you spent on housing and entertainment, including your TV, vs. your savings for medical needs.
The average family in this country spends $1,000 to save for tuition of their children. Why don't you compare that to the average price they pay for TV.
Well, it depends where the spot is. If it's in the ass, then, true, it is spot on.
Work ethic says it all.
You responded: Not from a defense standpoint. And that's the one that matters with Red China
Can't you see that this is apples and oranges. Defense is not an economic issue.
Why don't you inquire about the difference between an economy and a polity.
You are really incoherent, my friend. Your rudeness cannot hide utter ignorance, my friend.
Too many 45-70 year old business owners are saying this about the under 30 set. One frankly admitted to me this week his son doesn't have what it takes to run his business and isn't sure why.
So, what is surprising here? The goods you purchase in a grocery store cost 10-30% to produce.
We've been "cuttin a fat hog" for a long time and some people think that it is the natural order of things. It's not.
Probably some radical commie SOB that wants to provide for his family decently.
If he's REAL radical, he might even dream of doing it on one paycheck.
BTW, with hourly wages virtually stuck for the last 30 years, your efforts at raising productivity must leave a little to be desired if your workers are pulling you under.
Now who is off his meds? LOL!
Iconoclast: Probably some radical commie SOB that wants to provide for his family decently.
I would appreciate your sarcasm if it were less self-cetered. You actually confirm your ideology: it is OK, according to you, for ONE American to make unreasonable demands on another American because HE wants to provide for HIS family. What about the other side? That is the question I asked. What about the family of the one being asked to satisfy those unreasonable demands?
You just don't give a d-mn, do you? And surely fancy yourself a conservative.
BTW, with hourly wages virtually stuck for the last 30 years, your efforts at raising productivity must leave a little to be desired if your workers are pulling you under.
You must be referring to real wages, not nominal. By what law are they suppose to be rising continually? You increase your productivity --- you get higher wage. And you don't if your productivity remains the same.
What WAS the point of that remark? What other grievances against capitalism do you have, Mr. Conservative Socialist?
Why don't you take a running f*** in a rolling doughnut?
My profile clearly states that for most of my adult life I was an, entrepreneur, a small businessman.
As is so common to your ilk, yours says little or nothing.
Go grind a prole.
So is Soros and all those that financed the Russian revolution.
Why don't you take a running f*** in a rolling doughnut? Looks to me you should take time off and take an English course.
I am sorry, I made a mistake calling you a Conservative Socialist. You are not conservative at all: you have no respect for the English language or culture and use the gutter language worthy of a thug. Please forgive me for this error. DU would loooove to have you in their midst.
After almost five years here, I have to agree. There's an awful lot of FR boilerplate posted here, much of it from people trying to convince themselves of their own superiority.
You will know them by their angry reactions to posts such as this one.
But I will say that their pat answers have made it much easier to flash past hundreds of posts to reach a few thoughtful ones, simply by looking for keywords.
Yeah, you're at least a little correct. I'm am up from the bottom, America loving, tough little, straight talking shit that didn't make a fortune, but also never spouted a platitude (God forgive me if I did), and never forgot any of the good folk that worked for me for the best wage I could offer them, or on the other hand for any that gave me a hand up.
DU would loooove to have you in their midst.
I guess I can live with that since, IMHO, Hell's waiting to welcome you.
If I pondered for weeks, a more appropriate screen name for you than "Garbage Out" of your mouth would never have occurred to me.
Quote: Chinese labor has always been there. American companies have always been guided by knowledgeable people, so they couldn't have missed that fact. Why is increase in outsourcing now?
Because not too many years ago if you dealt with an communist country your were labeled a traitor or a commusnist symphaziser is why. No longer. The almighty buck is the new god.
Qute: I said: American workers are the smartest and most productive of any workers in the world and that is a proven fact.
Idiot said: This is silly: the fact that hiring is done elsewhere proves the opposite.
The reason they are hiring elsewheres is for cheap labor.
Please, that has always been as American as apple pie.
We have traded with the Russians, we have traded with Chinese before.
And, India is not a communist country. We are loosing jobs to Indians. Why?
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