[A. Pole]

Outsourcing platforms, especially the knowledge jobs platforms in India, are commissioning U.S. think tanks and consultants to do "independent" studies that prove "outsourcing is good for the U.S." Certainly, the people who are benefiting from outsourcing want us to think it is good for us.

Independent studies bump.

[kaktuskid]

Read the HOUSEHOLD employment figures..more people are working at home and for themselves!

[Jim Robinson]

Down with capitalism!! Down with dirty rotten profiteers!! LOL

[AreaMan]

Baumol show that it very much matters which industries and occupations countries retain.

Nah....We can all have great lives as consultants or baristas.

[PRND21]

The restaurant construction business is BOOMING in SoCal.

[Jorge]

Where has employment grown?

The unemployment rate has dropped from around 6.4 percent less than a year ago to 5.6 percent.

This is the lowest unemployment rate in two years and below the average of the 1980s (7.3 percent) and '90s (5.8 percent), and still continues to drop.

[Mr. Buzzcut]

I'm in software ... during the "bubble", there were a ton of people hired who had only recently read "HTML for Dummies". I don't suspect their jobs are coming back.

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

WHERE DID ALL THE JOBS GO?

Employment is a polite euphemism for slavery. You will never experience freedom [and you sure as heck will never make the big bucks] until you become your own boss.

Yeah, times are tough, especially if you're a CompSci/EE/ChemE major with mediocre grades, who now finds himself in competition with the various Curries and Thai Peppers of the world, all of whom will work for 1/10th the salary you'll work for. But if this little tech-sphere depression spurs the move of techies away from employment slavery and towards entrepreneurial freedom, it could be the best thing that ever happened to us.

[driftless]

What needs to be done by Republicans is placing ads on radio and tv explaining how capitalism and the free-market works. It should be obvious to the great majority of Americans that capitalism has worked out great for most Americans and will continue to do so. But from my conversations with friends, family, and co-workers, few have any idea how the free-market works, why America is so wealthy...and why many Americans are so fat. Maybe the Bush admin feels that discussing the basics of the free-market is too complicated for the average American, but I'd like them to give it a try. Americans should understand that it is pointless to try to save jobs that can't or shouldn't be saved. They should especially hammer home the point that governments do not create wealth...business does.

[Eva]

If the number of jobs is so low, why is unemployment below the thirty year average?

[Eva]

From the WSJ:

If the Democrats really want to call free-traders immoral, perhaps we should look at the rights and wrongs of employment in America. A National Association of Manufacturers study two months ago found that the primary competitive challenge facing manufacturers was not competition from cheaper foreign workers, but the extra cost of doing business in the U.S.

The costs contributing to the loss of jobs were high corporate tax rates, mandated employee benefits, tort litigation, regulatory compliance and energy. In other words, the Democrats' agenda of higher taxes, more regulation and coddling the tort lobby makes them the biggest sinners of all.

[sixmil]

If everyone becomes a dentist or a surgeon, those incomes will be driven down.

Don't worry, the AMA will never let this happen.

[KevinDavis]

Sorry to be cruel, but a high paying job is not a right nor guaranteed. It is not in the Constitution.

[winker]

Spinless business owners would not hang tough for change in our Congress; so now we all hang separately twisting in the wind!

[MissAmericanPie]

Not to worry, it's all good. It's Free Trade.

[BlueNgold]

According to the officical Dept of Labor statistics the US job is now the largest ever and has increased by more than 1MM jobs since President Bush took office. Unemployment is now ~ 5.6% ... comperable to the 1996 numbers when Clinton ran on job and economy...

[varon]

During the past 12 months, the second year of economic recovery, the U.S. economy eked out 57,000 net new jobs in nontradable low-pay services,.................

The 57,000 net new jobs in low-pay services weren't even enough to accomodate the number of illegals coming across our borders during the same time period.