[ninenot]

FWIW, the under-employment/compensation squeezes started during the Clinton years. You may remember "bracket creep," which was a compensation problem: newly-degreed engineers or BusAd grads were brought into firms and the managers of said newbies were paid only marginally more than the newbies. THAT was due to the 'shortage' of college grads...but it was the first symptom of a larger problem: overhead money was getting tight.

After about 10-12 years, the 'bracket creep' problem de-materialized, partly because middle management positions were cut, and partly because more college grads emerged. But as the 'college grad' problem went away, the underlying cause of 'bracket creep--decreasing margins/overhead costs--continued.

Now overhead cost is cut by moving operations overseas. No taxes, no enviro-regs, no OSHA, no FedLaborLaws, no EEO, and no labor costs.

This is NOT just a "labor-cost" issue, and anybody who thinks it is is blind. It's a cost-of-doing-business issue, and it's comprehensive.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

According to BLS "THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: OCTOBER 2003" there were about 1.4 million Americans working part time because they could not find a full time job. This does not include those who normally work part-time, not full-time. Those employed part time for economic reasons are not included in the official unemployment rate.

ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/news.release/empsit.txt

The point is, Americans are trying just as some here have done in the past. Why is today's crop of long-term unemployed being trashed? It happens in everyone of these threads. What's the point? They are bearing the brunt of the changes in our economy due to globalization and other factors. Did they really "earn" that privilege?

BTW, now that jobs are being created watch for the official unemployment rate to rise, say some economists. Some of the unemployed not included in the offical rate will be out looking for full-time jobs again.