Posted on 04/24/2013 2:34:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Two men named Bob. Both are over fifty. Both had been working consistently for nearly three decades before losing their jobs in 2009. Both were out of work for more than 99 weeks.
Now there is one glaring difference. Bob Greeney is employed. Bob Sullivan is still fighting to get back into the workforce.
Friendly and candid, the 61-year-old Mr. Sullivan worked in the travel hospitality industry until his former company closed its Boston branch. After taking a brief pause to care for his mother, he said he went through job agencies, attended job fairs and applied to scores of jobs online.
“Still, no bites,” said Mr. Sullivan, whose ongoing search, day in and day out, continues. “It’s just a malaise you fall into. It’s like having a slow disease, especially if you get rejected or don’t hear back.”
The battle to get back to work is indisputably grueling, and Mr. Sullivan and the other roughly 4.7 million people who have been unemployed for over six months know all too well that as each month goes by the stigma of long-term unemployment can make it increasingly more challenging to find work
“If someone is out of work for a while the perception from employers is that there must be something wrong with you, and after a couple of years the people themselves begin to believe they don’t have value, that it’s over for them,” said Joe Carbone, creator of Platform to Employment, a five-week program that focuses on retraining and placing “99ers” into eight-week internships with the possibility of that turning into a job. The term “99ers” refers to those out of work for 99 weeks or longer and whose unemployment benefits have run out.
“We don’t see bread lines. But that despair is there, it’s just behind closed doors,”
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
| Year | Unemployment rate |
|---|---|
|
1923-29 |
3.3 |
|
1930 |
8.9 |
|
1931 |
15.9 |
|
1932 |
23.6 |
|
1933 |
24.9 |
|
1934 |
21.7 |
|
1935 |
20.1 |
|
1936 |
17.0 |
|
1937 |
14.3 |
|
1938 |
19.0 |
|
1939 |
17.2 |
|
1940 |
14.6 |
|
1941 |
9.9 |
|
1942 |
4.7 |
Gross Domestic Product (ref. 1929 dollars in millions) Year GDP 1929 101,444 1930 91,513 1931 84,300 1932 70,682 1933 68,337 1934 74,609 1935 85,806 1936 95,798 1937 103,917 1938 96,670 1939 103,736 1940 112,961 1941 126,237 Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Series 08166.
The real unemployment rate is probably between 15-20%. This is a depression. I have never known so many unemployed people, including some who have been looking for years.
Bump
The best bet for fast employment once a new president and hopefully Republican congress are in place would be a Small Business Entrepreneurial Act, which would give start ups with under 10 employees a huge boost.
1) Regulation cessation. That is, find out exactly how many regulations are imposed on each different type of small business, and seriously try to abate all but the critical ones.
2) Create tax simplification for small business. Think of it as flat rate for small business. If they make enough profit they pay the rate, if they don’t, they don’t pay federal tax. Somewhat like today, they should have three years of not enough profit before they *have* to earn enough to pay the tax, or move to ordinary type taxes.
3) Provide to small businesses hundreds of potential formerly successful business models to base their new business on. Basically recipes for what to do, and what not to do. Likewise provide competition research, so for example, they don’t open their restaurant where there are already 10 restaurants on that block. That is, location, location, location research.
4) Provide hiring preferences for older employees, such as reduced FICA for both business and employee, and other exemptions.
Since small businesses provide far more jobs in a nation than big businesses, this should hopefully slash unemployment.
Patronizing companies known to be senior-friendly will help. We'll all be there someday. Better work to change it or be out of work yourselves when you need it most.
RE: Forty-two percent are men and forty-one percent are women. What are the other 17%?
See Post #26 above.
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That is why small business start ups are a great place for older workers. I know several retired people who were bored so started their own business after they retired, and did quite well. But only because they had advisers who kept them from making common yet disastrous mistakes.
If you could get a team of them assembled with that purpose, their odds of success would be quite good.
RE: Shouldn’t those percentages add up to 100? Or is this some of that “damned lies and statistics” thing?
Which numbers don’t add up to 100%?
Race, Age, Sex, Education, each should total 100% but they don’t.
Lets look at unemployment numbers for Sex (or gender) for instance.
The chart says 42% of MEN who are unemployed are unemployed Long Term.
The chart also says 41% of WOMEN who are unemployed are unemployed long term.
Let’s assume that there are 10 million unemployed men today and there are 10 million unemployed women today. That makes a total of 20 million unemployed people.
Of the 10 million unemployed men, 42% or 4.2 Million are LONG-TERM unemployed.
Of the 10 million unemployed women, 41% or 4.1 Million are LONG-TERM unemployed.
This makes a total of 4.2 million (men) + 4.1 million (women) or 8.3 Million LONG TERM unemployed out of 20 million unemployed people.
So, of the total 20 million unemployed, 41.5% ( 8.3 million MEN AND WOMEN ) are LONG TERM unemployed.
Were it not for the fact that the title refers explicitly to LONG TERM UNEMPLOYED, one may freely introduce the factor of just plain unemployed. The 17% are drones waiting for work.
I am seriously envious.
A question: do you have problems with ticks/chiggers/other parasites there?
Where I grew up in eastern North Carolina, where the climate is semi-tropical, multi-legged parasites are a torment. I’ve always wondered if they exist in even a worse form out in the serious tropics.
Just wondering.
‘Senior friendly’ usually means they’ll pay you less because we are giving you an opportunity to work, which you can’t get because you’re old.
I’m in retail now and interesting watching things change in who they want to hire for designated sellers...meaning with expereince in sales.
They are hiring young people who haven’t a clue the respossibility of working in the area I work....management expects us to teach them...then they re-locate the older woman who taught them... to another dept. for lesser wages.
Some of the ladies are hanging on...so they cut their hours way down hoping they will just leave.
I haven't encountered chiggers here, but the family dogs have to be cleared of ticks occasionally. I try to stay out of the bushes, myself. Mosquitos are a minor problem, but only at dusk and dawn, and even then they aren't too much nuisance. I'm a cigar smoker, and they don't like that too much!!
The living is good here, and the seafood is plentiful, the shrimp are big and fresh! I even bought some oysters the other day (first time I saw them in the "Mercado"), and steamed them. Yummmmm.
Again, I’m really envious.
/born in Elizabeth City
//If I don’t get on tenure track by the end of next year, the wife and I are considering moving to the Czech Republic permanently. I have family in Prague, and really love the city. And I get to keep my guns.
It might have originally come from the following table indicating that total taxes collected are 90% of Chinese GDP. Wikipedia- China tax structure
Doesn't really matter if I'm wrong. A product made with $17/hr labor with 0 taxes is still not competitive with a product made with $0.17/hr labor and 25% taxes.
You can cut out all U.S. taxes and regulations and will still be losing industries to China. Until either our wages are equal to Chinese or we protect our market.
Revenue breakdown in 1997
Revenue breakdown by Type of Taxes in 1997:
| Type of Tax | Revenue (in billion yuan) | Proportion to Total Revenue (%) | Proportion to GDP (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAT | 348.13 | 42.3 | 46.4 |
| Consumption Tax | 71.11 | 8.6 | 9.6 |
| Business Tax | 135.34 | 16.4 | 18.1 |
| Enterprise Income Tax | 93.17 | 11.3 | 12.5 |
| Income Tax on Enterprises with Foreign investment and Foreign Enterprises | 14.31 | 1.7 | 1.9 |
| Individual Income Tax | 25.99 | 3.2 | 3.5 |
| Resource Tax | 5.66 | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| City and Township Land Use Tax | 4.40 | 0.5 | 0.6 |
| City maintenance and Construction Tax | 27.23 | 3.3 | 3.6 |
| Farmland Occupation Tax | 3.39 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Fixed Assets investment Orientation Regulation Tax | 7.83 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| House Property Tax and Urban Real Estate Tax | 12.39 | 1.5 | 1.7 |
| Vehicle and Vessel Usage Tax and Vehicle and Vessel Usage Plate Tax | 1.72 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Stamp Tax | 26.63 | 3.2 | 3.6 |
| Deed Tax | 3.60 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
| Slaughter Tax | 2.39 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Agriculture Tax and Animal Husbandry Tax | 34.75 | 4.2 | 4.6 |
| Customs Duties | 31.95 | 3.9 | 4.3 |
| Total | 823.40 | 100.0 | 110.1 |
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