This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Only 44% Of U.S. Adults Are Employed For 30-Or-More Hours Per Week
Submitted by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
Jim Clifton, the Chairman and CEO of Gallup, says that the percentage of Americans that are employed full-time has been hovering near record lows since the end of the last recession. But most Americans don’t realize this because the official unemployment numbers are extremely misleading. In fact, Clifton says that the official 5.6 percent unemployment rate is a “big lie”. Gallup regularly tracks the percentage of U.S. adults that are employed for 30 or more hours per week, and it is currently at 44.2 percent. It has been hovering between 42 percent and 45 percent since the end of 2009. This is extremely low. As I discussed the other day, there are 8.69 million Americans that are considered to be “officially unemployed” at this point. But there are another 92.90 million Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force”. Millions upon millions of those Americans would work if they could. Overall, there are 101 million U.S. adults that do not have a job right now. But you won’t hear that number being discussed by the mainstream media, because it would make Barack Obama look really bad.
Most Americans just assume that the economic numbers that we are being given accurately reflect reality. That is why it is so refreshing to have men like Jim Clifton step forward and tell the truth. His recent article entitled “The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment” is making headlines all over America. The following is an extended excerpt from that article…
There’s another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you’re an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 — maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn — you’re not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
Yet another figure of importance that doesn’t get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find — in other words, you are severely underemployed — the government doesn’t count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
There’s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.
And it’s a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual’s primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity — it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen’s talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.
Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older.
And Gallup is being extremely generous.
I certainly would not define a 30 hour a week job at minimum wage as a “good job”, but Gallup does.
So the truth is that the percentage of U.S. adults that do have “good jobs” is actually far lower than 44 percent.
In the video that I have posted below, there is much more from Clifton about our current employment crisis…
Pretty strong stuff.
But Clifton also understands that there is danger in speaking out like this.
For example, just check out what he told CNBC during one recent interview…
“I think that the number that comes out of BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] and the Department of Labor is very, very accurate. I need to make that very, very clear so that I don’t suddenly disappear. I need to make it home tonight.”
So why are there so few good jobs for Americans?
Well, for one thing, our control freak politicians have absolutely murdered job creation in the United States.
Traditionally, small businesses have been the primary engine of job growth for the U.S. economy. But for each of the past six years, the number of new businesses being created has been lower than the number of businesses that have died.
Prior to 2008, we had never seen this happen before in all of U.S. history.
Thanks Obama.
Meanwhile, we continue to ship millions of good jobs out of the country, and millions of good jobs are being replaced by technology.
A confluence of factors are coming together to create a perfect storm that is going to be extremely bitter for American workers.
Spending our wealth is not a path to prosperity. We have got to create wealth in order to be a prosperous nation.
But instead, we continue to buy far, far more from the rest of the world than they buy from us. We just learned that the trade deficit increased to 46.6 billion dollars in December, and the total trade deficit for the year was more than half a trillion dollars.
This is complete and utter insanity, but at this point the trade deficit is not even a political issue for either major political party anymore.
And the really bad news is that this is about as good as things are going to get for the U.S. economy. The next major economic downturn is right around the corner, and our employment crisis is going to get much, much worse once that strikes.
Already, layoffs in January were 17.6 percent higher than they were in January a year ago and businesses all over the country are shutting down following a very disappointing holiday season.
In addition, the Baltic Dry Index has dropped to stunningly low levels. In fact, it is already lower than it was at any point during the last recession. The following is an excerpt from a recent article by Mac Slavo…
The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is used by economists and stock traders alike as a leading economic indicator because it predicts future economic activity. The index tracks in US dollars and measures global supply and demand for commodity shipments among bulk carriers including raw materials like lumber, coal, metallic ores, and grains. What makes this particular measurement so distinct from others, according to economic Howard Simmons, is that the BDI “is totally devoid of speculative content” because “people don’t book freighters unless they have cargo to move.”
On Thursday, the Baltic Dry Index was sitting at 564, That is not too far above the record low level of 554 that was established in July 1986.
So don’t be fooled by all the happy talk from the mainstream media and from politicians like Barack Obama.
They are lying to you, and their lies will soon be evident for all the world to see.
- 24778 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


A "good job" means selling myself for more than 30 hours a week? So as to buy a bunch of junk that I don't need and won't make me happier, and meanwhile help the fat cats I'm working for get even richer? No thanks.
Let me know how you feel about 30 hours/ weeek after you have some kids. Most of us are saving and stacking for our families and that is what makes the theft even worse.
He should stay away from nail guns.
Governments distort data and feed it to the public? Impossible!
So, if I work more than 50 hours a week at ONE place, does this put me in the hated 'one percent' category? If I also ENJOY my work, does this elevate me to the elite '1/10th of one percent' status?
"Governments distort data and feed it to the public? Impossible!"
IMPOSSIBRU!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om_ht_tvj1Y
If you find yourself unemployed or underemployed, you should start a garden!
How to Make Garden Soil for Free
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCSNtRKUY64&feature=youtu.be
It's 44% now, and it will be close to 20% in upcoming decades. Automation will reduce the number of necessary employees, and the few jobs remaining will be technical jobs to service the automated systems. Those technical jobs would be very short shifts.
We have to take off the pre-Bretton Woods era glasses, and put on a newer pair.
Full-time employment with benefits and a pension and big boss that will take care of you is a bygone era after Nixon got the US off of the gold standard, after ERISA passed, after NAFTA was passed, and after trickle down, I mean up economics was shown to be a giant wealth transfer. The banks get bailed out and yet righties cry foul when low-income people want some leftover crumbs.
Eventually the 99% will all be on welfare because employment will become a thing of the past. Then the 99% will use their welfare to purchase goods and services provided by the 1%. That's the new post-industrial world, and it will get more and more profound as the decades roll on. We can't go back to the 1947-1957 decade of post WWII United States that Snyder misses so much, because the world is now globalized and has recovered immensely from the destruction of World War 2.
Having hundreds of full-time employees working in agriculture, mining, or on shop floors is obsolete. Robots will eventually replace today's service workers. Artificial Intelligence will eventually replace today's knowledge workers.
I could whine all day on internet message boards and blame Bush or Obama for the lack of full time work, or I could put my big boy pants on and start a business that utilizes independent contractors because hiring full-time employees no longer makes any business sense. The people who whine about lack of full time jobs, probably wouldn't want to hire full time employees themselves. Why the heck would you hire full time employees when you could hire twice or three times as many part timers for the same amount of payroll expenses? If a full timer calls in sick, you are screwed, if a part timer calls in, it's not as burdensome.
I just wish more people looked at things from a business perspective, instead of a big boss will take care of me like a big daddy figure does. Businesses don't exist to provide full time jobs to the masses, businesses exist to make money for their owners. If the 99% understood that we wouldn't have so much bickering and confusion. If you want full time work, build a business and you'll get 168 hours a week guaranteed!
I'm sure those in power will keep billions of useless humans around. LOL you're so clueless
Heard of permatemping? That's what happens when businesses want to be able to fire people on the spot with no hassles, guaranteed. They hire a temp, sometimes full time, for years. It's a guaranteed dead end job. They won't let the temps become regular employees even though the temp agency charges the business 25% more than the temp is worth, and then pays the temp maybe 2/3 of what he is worth. The agency takes all that extra skim just to shuffle a few papers with each paycheck. It's like paying a full round of taxes before you even pay your taxes! And we haven't even added health care (or lack thereof) to the equation.
Since overprotective labor laws are what got us in this situation, we need even more overprotective labor laws to get us out (/sarc)
Whew, lucky we have Social Security to fall back on when I get tired of working three jobs (all less than 20 hours a week).
Another standing ovation for another great outcome thanks to the incompetent corrupt divisive arrogant narcissistic illegal indonesian kenyan alien muslim sociopathic pathological liar in chief fudgepacker while it continues to live its celebrity grand imperial golf lifestyle on the backs of all you tax paying U.S. citizen saps. So get off your Christian high horses and bow down to allah so the muslim terrorists can kill more innocent people across the globe while the fudgepacker practices its putting and the wookie buys another $17000 dress that makes him look like a ho..... ain't. amerika grand since the fudgepacker necame tyrant king..... Hahahaha
I want to have kids but I don't think it will happen with me being able to give them a good life until maybe after the reset. UNLESS I get a government job.
Forget their script, Camacho. Find yourself a nice girl, move away from their bullshit and have your kids.
As long as you dream in their vocabulary, you remain their serf.
"As long as you dream in their vocabulary, you remain their serf."
Nice descriptive words, thanks for your post
It's a risk, that's for sure. I have one and I have another on the way. It kinda scares me to think about what they will be dealing with, and it absolutely infuriates me that they are born in debt servitude in this country. And getting their social security card in the mail feels like you are getting their slave card. But, you can't let those fears run your life, or ruin your life. I love being a father, and I (hope/ think) will be able to take care of them far better than most of the population if anything bad happens.
If you want children then adopt rather than breed.
Nicely said.
The whole goddamn thing hinges on us participating in their money system. Imagine if the small businesses in your area began trading in silver measures instead.
A tax free method of exchange, yeah?
Rothschild says: "Damn these few smart and honorable people! Even when only half awake, they are dangerously unpredictable. But at least they don't have kids they can't afford... Hmmmmm..." <twirls moustache>
The puppetmasters are trying to breed the perfect serf.
Deekra (dear), what makes you think any "reset" is going to come soon or that it is going to be short-lived? It may happen in a long while and it make take decades for USA to get back to "normal." After all, things in USA are going down not only because of that country's own doing but because the world has changed. There are a LOT more competitors around, AND you have illegals by the millions and gangs and drugs, etc. The basic moral fabric of the society is all-but gone.
It is sad but this is the truth. So get rid of that notion that any reset is going to happen in a week or month or it will take a short time to be completed. Chances are we will not see good times in USA in our lifetimes.
Kids need not be expensive. If you don't buy them the latest in fashion and the latest tech gadgets, give them toys, money, and indulge their every whim, they probably stand a better chance of becoming intelligent when they grow up, too.
Most kids in the world are from low-income areas. Kids don't cost a lot. It's the pipe dream you're chasing after that's so expensive.
Kids don't cost a lot. It's the pipe dream you're chasing after that's so expensive.
Absa-freeking-lootely true!
And I speak from lots of experience.
Kids are a family investment, and no they are expensive. Anyone who says that they are not, does not have any.
Food
Clothes/shoes
Most will want at least a 2 bedroom place instead of 1 bedroom.
Diapers/bottles/etc.
Required safety gear...backward facing car seat, forward facing car seat, booster.
Health insurance/medical care
Childcare
Toys and gadgets are really small potatoes. Activities can get ridiculous, most classes are at least $20 for one hour...one mom said that they spend $35,000 a year for a child to play on a travel hockey team.
Kids are an expensive investment in time. Money? Not necesarily.
I want to have kids but I don't think it will happen with me being able to give them a good life until maybe after the reset. UNLESS I get a government job.
Can't have 'em! A vasectomy was the best decision I ever made.
For most people a "good job" means working more than 30 hours per week and paid above minimum wage to be able to support themselves and their family.
It's about food, shelter, and medical care before it is about buying "junk".
I just find it curious what you guys phrase it as a GOOD thing to sell yourself for over 30 hours a week. If you called it a necessary evil or admitted that you're enslaved by the system, I'd understand.
My goal is to sell myself for less than 10-20 hours a week (as little as possible, actually) and still to make a full salary (or however much I require) to support my lifestyle. I wouldn't be opposed to abbandoning my already-frugal lifestyle, though, should that no longer be possible. It's still possible to survive without being anyone's bitch in our world.
Wow. I love my job and work from 40 to 48 hours per week. Since my job has made it so that all of my properties are paid off I can stop working at any time. I just show up because I enjoy it. Too bad you "sell yourself" for a job that you hate. A job where you are someone's "bitch." (Are you a gay male prostitute?) Have you ever considered counseling and/or medication to correct your mental problem? With as little as you "sell yourself" Dear Leader Obamacare may very well cover the doctor visits and the drugs for you.
Sounds like you're not really living, just surviving. Right now, you sound like someone with a bad attitude that nobody would want to hire who will get replaced by automation.
I have various personal projects that I really enjoy "working" on. I feel alive when I can spend a lot of my time working on something that I care about, even if I make no money from it, rather than waste my time working for someone else who, as you accurately described, is liable to lay me off to make an extra 0.01% profit in the next quarter. :-)
People usually want to hire people who will make them money. The logic is: I'll pay you $10 to generate $15 of profit for me. Basically, they want to hire tools or idiots. So I'm hardly offended if you say that I'm an undesirable employee. Of course that doesn't mean I can't give a good interview when I want to... anyone intelligent needs to know how to dissimulate.
Yeah, not a Team player!! not on the Red or the Blue Team, I like him.
It's about food, shelter, and medical care before it is about buying "junk".
Take a trip through the hood, Bedsheet for a front door, no curtains, no water, yet big screen TV and awesome rims on the car
That Gallup CEO is going to have an "accident" soon, of an Argentine variety
SI Swimsuit follows Nationwide's strategy: hey, let's piss everybody off!
http://tinyurl.com/l55zd7h
First NASA, and now SI Swimsuit... this "Muslim Outreach" thing has just gone too far.
Instead of calling her plus size......maybe they should have called her healthy looking.
No worries, mate. Just like Brian Williams lying to the sheeple that his helicopter went down from an RPG & AK47 fire and he saw a dead person floating in water after Katrina. Everyone is just following the lead of the pathiliar in chief who has set such an honorable tine in amerika. Hoo raa
wow.. i'm in the 44% about 50% of the time! Holy shit!!!
"So don’t be fooled by all the happy talk from the mainstream media and from politicians like Barack Obama."
The only people who are fooled by Barack Obama are those that want to be fooled.
Long live the Baltic Dry!
Molon Labe!
I'm really worked up tonight, I guess.
What?!?!?! You mean that Dear Leader Obama isn't going to pay my bills for me? Damn!... Fooled again.
Obamaphone lady:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio
Obamaphone lady wakes up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZuKGTZlEY
Obamaphone lady would kick some major league ass at Fightclub.
If we had not lived in USA and did not have friends there, we too would be fooled. The mainstream media makes things out like as if life in USA is one big party, when in fact it is close to one big hell. That is why we got out and have NEVER regretted that decision. Giving up our green cards was the one of the happiet days of our lives.
Many of us used to have careers. Now we're lucky just to have a "job".
I spent my entire career trying not to have a "job". I finally succeeded. I'm debt free and self-employed. Yes, I get socked with taxes out the wazoo on what I earn, but I don't try to earn kajonga bucks any more.
You wanna make it through the desert of the 21st century? You better grow camel humps. Cause it's a long fucking way between watering holes. Dragging a debt anchor behind you on the journey is ill advised.
I took a buyout in the late 90's and then did consulting jobs I wanted to do. Those jobs started to disappear in 2008 but I didn't have any debt to speak of. The house is paid off but taxes are starting to hurt. I usually break even every month by doing everything from small business IT stuff to tractor repair. I have a lot of good tools and "dry powder" if something unexpected comes up. Barring a disaster, I should squeak by while watching friends and neighbors repeat history by taking on easy credit and buying useless gadgets and new cars.
Sounds like we have a lot in common.
You guys are my heroes
(Possible sarcasm aside), you can do it too. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but my IQ goes up dramatically when money is involved.
Pay off debts first. If that means you have to forgo savings for now, so be it. Getting out of debt is job one. Always. And I mean everything- even the mortgage. Shoot one debt target at a time straight into the ground and then fix your sights on the next one using the extra ammo you got by relieving yourself of the previous debt. Your gun gets bigger as you go. You've now shrunk your financial radar cross-section down to the size of an acorn (believe me, you'll like it better). You don't NEED massive income to support your lifestyle any more.
If you took a picture of my financial profile you'd see a stealth bomber with glider wings and a low coefficient of drag.
I can get from A to B silently and invisibly using almost no energy. I could ride barely-perceptible thermals of finacial lift for 10 years without kicking the engines on if I needed to.
Experian, Trans Union and Equfax don't know much about me except "pays as agreed" across the board. I could borrow insane amounts of money, but I rarely use credit. I leave almost no wake behind me. I raise no suspicion.
In a world measured in debt, the debt-free are like ghosts. We pass into and through things and observers have only vague recollections we were ever there. We can not be viewed using their technology. We are invisible.
Nicely done. Reduced RCS makes one stealthy, wealthy and wise.
Pay cash. They hate cash because it leaves no trace.
+10 and my second existence rule. My first is breathing.
In a world measured in debt, the debt-free are like ghosts. We pass into and through things and observers have only vague recollections we were ever there. We can not be viewed using their technology. We are invisible.
Man that's scripture.
I utterly agree. I love having zero debt. Even though my crazy fuck ex wife ruined my credit, I really don't care.
Any advice on getting the old lady on board in living like a ghost? I have no debt and could retire tomorrow, but not at the level she has been accustomed to. I will be fifty next year and will be paying my last tuition bill for my 4th and youngest child soon.
If you can offshore your money you will be that much better off.
We used to do what we wanted and needed to for survival. We weren't anyone's bitch.
Later on, some of us considered working as an affront to our dignity while the majority of us were the bitches and no power or choice in the matter.
They eventually got pissed off and put an end to that. Now, the morality has shifted to "you ought to work, otherwise you have no dignity". Since all they knew was working, they adopted another system quite similar to the one they abbandoned, only this time they took pride in having a "career" and a little more self-determination than before.
Now, most of us merely just have "jobs".
Possible futures?
Maybe most of us will be lucky to be kept alive to work and will reminisce of the happy days of our having jobs.
Or maybe we'll make machines our bitches and aim for 0% human employment.
I enjoyed my days in the Fortune 500. We were all "organization men" with some loyalty to the company because we all benefited if the company did well. Things were fine until companies started saying they needed to take care of the stockholders. This resulted in head count reduction, "curtailment" of plants and the whole M&A craziness. Now we're in an era of vampire squids, outsourcing and QE. Nobody would have believed this could happen even 20 years ago.
True. And the most important "shareholder" is
the senior management of these companies who use layoffs, outsourcing,
stock buy backs and increasingly shitty benefits so as to increase the
value of their restricted stock and options. I envy my dad who is
89 and his company still pays all his healthcare costs because back
in the old days, these bloodsucking vampires weren't around. Now their
goal is to have moar than the next asshole. RIP USA
I enjoyed my days in the Fortune 500. We were all "organization men"
You're free to make your own choices, amigo, but I'd rather collect cans than work Fortune 500. Being an "organization man" degrades the soul.
It was different back then. We were making things in the US and people were promoted based on performance, mostly. There's no going back to that the way things are now. My old company has become a cesspool of political infighting, political correctness, and greed. I couldn't work there any more than you could.
This classic book is a period piece from 1956 but describes what working in that era was like, up to the point where the wheels started coming off.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Organization-Man-William-Whyte/dp/0812218191
The company I work for was started in 1955. The guy that started it is 90 and still on-scene on a daily basis. I'm lucky to have found a 'home' with 1950's values that now encompasses five quarries, eighteen ready mix plants, eighteen recycling plants, five retail steel facilities, one steel fabrication, a real estate holding company, a separate direct apartment building company, a logistics company and a venture into house flipping. Seven of which began in the last two years.
Yeah, I'm still solid middle class. I work 40-60 hours a week depending on the time of month (I'm the corporate controller). I have to keep reminding myself that the freeze on pay, bonuses and reduced administrative hours is based on MY suggestion back in 2007 when we saw, what we thought would be a relatively short recession, that is, in reality, the on-going Greater Depression. At that time I had no inkling of TARP, Cash for Clunkers, QEn , or the trillions that would be spent on artificial economic life support.
In 2008/09 we saw revenue go from $80 million to $26 million, and we concentrated on paying off notes. (In 2005 we purchased 150 trucks at $100k -$250k each) Notes paid off in 2010, revenue grew to $27 million (mostly government work) Started working on paying off lines of credit.
In 2012 all corporate debt and lines of credit were gone. All in the company got an embarrassingly minor raise and bonuses were reinstituted.
In 2013 we acquired $5 million in debt associated with acquisitions that make us dominant in a variety of markets. Those acquisitions are already exceeding expectations in cash flow. And we've actually bought a couple of vehicles at ZERO percent interest from Chrysler, Ford and Chevy. (I still can't believe it.) What used to be a normal debt interest of 7.5% to 8% is now running at about 3%.
Administrative hourly workers are still capped at 35 hours a week, get credit for full vacation time, have full company benefits, and have a monthly incentive that routinely gives them an additional $70 per month, via their selected gift card, as a company expense.
Based on 'government reports' my pay has decreased by over 10% in the last six years (in spite of the laughable raise). But I got that 'laughable raise' because the family that owns the company actually believes that they have the responsibility to share the 'wealth' (minor as it is) after a couple years of 'sharing the pain'.
I work for one of the last, real, mom and pop (yes, both are in their 90's) entities in the United States that still retains 1950's values. While I might, from time to time, vent frustrations...I am extremely aware of how lucky I, and those that work with me, REALLY are. Mom and Pop here are very sweet people that are modestly proud of what they built, and they still appreciate personal visits just to see how they're doing. Their son, as President (my age), is a bit of a dick, but he has their values also.
The middle class is NOT dead, yet. Nor is Small Business. What our war criminal government does affects us, but we do try to dodge and sidestep as their increasingly erratic behavior forces us to do.
Side note: Question on Census Bureau Survey beginning 2008 and repeated 2012 regarding steel fabrication entity. "If you were provided all resources required, with around the clock labor in any quantity needed, with all transportation provided...how much would your production increase?" I answered, "WTF are you planning? It would be unlimited!" Same question in 2012..."Infinity...BTW, we have a double rail line along the property with room for a side spur. There's about 70 acres of empty desert land across the rail line adequate for the required 'housing'."
THanks for writing that. Consider yourself lucky. I did not know those firms existed anymore
fat finger (sorry)
Unless you are born into money or marry into money, jobs are required to maintain lifestyle for the individual or family, whether frugal or luxurious. The frugal lifestyle can also be maintained via .gov assistance. Career paths for some licensed professionals (PEs, CPAs, etc. ) and management exist in many large companies, but the paths are there to control the staff. Dignity, as in worthy of respect, is a personal matter, and many people do not care. "Jobs" is all we got, dignity not required.
There are people who live in the wilderness without jobs and there are people who live in the cities without jobs. It's all a question of what type of lifestyle you want vs. what you're willing to pay for it. It's a cost-benefit tradeoff. In my view, most people underestimate the cost (50% of their free time and energy) or overestimate the benefit (taxed and inflated fiat currency, houses, cars, and the so-called "luxuries" that are so mainstream these days that your average person can't imagine life without them). But maybe that's just my bias being expressed yet again.
You are a truethfull soothsayer.
When in USA we knew more than a couple of CPAs that had trouble finding work when laid off. New computer programs is making the full-time CPA obsolete, and increasingly they are onlyl needed for short-term audits.
Technology is replacing all jobs.
I work in a sort of specific domain Project Management sw. It used to be as high paying as the bigtime ERP and accounting SW areas. After Dot con crash, all consulting was labeled as "product" consulting and shipped off to India. It is only now coming back and still under wage and billing pressure.
Still easy to get over 100,000/year but it has taken a huge amount of time/money to have businesses to see that some Indian kid who switches jobs 3 times a year and is technically astute enough to put a new variable on a screen is NOT what you want to have your business rely on.
The real value of knowledge is not really how to do something, it is why you need to do it in the first place.
But in a world of no failures, you also have no winners so basically it is all fucked.
"Still easy to get over 100,000/year but it has taken a huge amount of time/money to have businesses to see that some Indian kid who switches jobs 3 times a year and is technically astute enough to put a new variable on a screen is NOT what you want to have your business rely on."
Oh I get it. So now it is the "Indian" kids that have no brians and that all other CPAs are doing well, is that it? What BS! Some of the CPS we knew having trouble were white and black, so don't give me that "Indian kid" BS.
And for your information, it is those "Indian kids" and other "Asian kids" that for the most part are studying away while in school rather than shooting druges like the "white kids," if you want to be a racist about it.
Relax, you and your people have benefited by global wage arbitrage and now you are suffering from the inveitable overuse of outsourcing.
Many of the companies that have done so are bring all but the most mundane tasks back or having robots do them and those they still have have to have more handmaidens to make sure what was promised was done.
It does give you the opportunity to begin to focus on the huge problems of your own country rather than avoiding them and poaching jobs from around the world.
PS, I am not saying your best should not work for the US companies, I am just sick and tired of your mid-level and below pawning themselves off as more than that....
But you won’t hear that number being discussed by the mainstream media, because it would make Barack Obama look really bad.
How do these fucking scumbags in the media sleep at night?
On goose-down pillows, with a gold-threaded comforter and $1000/night hooker beside them to keep them warm.
Just ask Brian Williams how he became the #1 network news anchor by simply making shit up. His pay is just over $10MM a year.
They don't sleep well after RPGs are shot at them.
And there is more than enough information on the Internet on how to make them...
Anybody into manufacturing? Since those jobs have vanished one can use those talents on the manufacture of RPGs.
(They are really short sighted, stupid, mother fuckers....They teach you the skills which can be used to destroy them and then they attempt to destroy you??? Just what do they really expect? The best defense is a good offense.)
That's because the other 56% have realized the American Dream and no longer need to work due to the epic recovery. Go 'Merica.......
Gabbing with a waitress at a café recently. She revealed she was a nurse. "Doesn't that pay well?" I asked. She said it might but the hospital management would not give staff enough hours. "I make more waitressing" she said.
I work in medicine and you should see what the suits in the corner offce make to create these "cost efficiencies".
Same with a trade job nowadays, you have about 2 people keeping track of every employee making sure they are "productive" enough. All the while siting on there asses churning unneeded paperwork to keep themselves employed.
Told this story here before, but I'm getting old and repeating stories to new audiences is what we do...
Our Anniversary... I think 33rd (losing track, though it will be 37 2/14). We're the reigning family champions in marriage longevity. Big dinner with mom, step-dad, sister and her fifth husband, dad, step mom, step brother and his second wife, a recently divorced cousin...(a buncha' people!)
Waitress was a machine. She was all over the restaurant covering tables that weren't her own, took our orders without writing them down, eventually brought them all back to the correct person as requested, drinks refilled or reordered before they were empty. She was the most impressive waitress I've ever seen.
I decided to tell her so.
She told me she was a college professor of physics at CalState Commuters U. (Inside joke, San Bernardino)and her hours had been cut to the point that waitressing was the most profitable thing she could find to support herself other than hooking and lap dancing. (She had the looks for either.)
Pretty sure she's hooking by now.
USA used to have a dire shortage of nurses many years back. However with so many immigrant nurses from Philippines, India, and west Africa, as well as a rash of hospital closings, they are in abundance. Yet another pofession on the wane.
Long time nurse (old) here. 20 or 25 years ago I used to see many nurses from PI and India. Last 20 years, it's more people who once had good jobs that have now disappeared and have gone back to school for a nursing degree. Competition for nursing school spots is fierce. I'd certainly never get in now, at least without working at it a lot harder than I did. Always see lots of new 40 and 50 year old nurses now. I imagine there are more immigrant nurses in certain parts of the country than what I see here though. I always joke with my wife about how 20 years ago we used to both work fulltime + just to be middle class and now we are firmly in the top 2-3 % income wise. Not that we're doing so much better, everyone else has dropped. At least my job will not be offshored or automated, while i'm still working anyway.
You are some of the blessed ones, believe me. I know many that are struggling.
What's the age range? 16 to dead? Anyways as long as the "market" is up and people's retirement funds look fat, most people don't give a fuck about anything. Nothing will change.
Finally, a man who speaks the truth. The Labor Force Participation Rate continues to fall (reported as 62.9% in January 2015) and U-6 is 11.3%. Many of the employed make far less than they did 10 years ago. Food Stamp use is at the highest level ever. Small business start-up's are almost non-existent Yes, the BLS is cooking the books. Many people see through the lie just like Mr. Clifton. Cui bono?
Cui bono?
For the benefit of the government and their political cronies. All of the expansion in government (either via direct employment or entitlements) has been at the expense of small businesses and the middle class.
Lying with statistics.
Again.
Hard to believe the President of the United States telling Lies, surely not, my faith in the Unites States is being shaken to its core.
Goverment workers...do they have full time jobs?
"Spending our wealth is not a path to prosperity. We have got to create wealth in order to be a prosperous nation."
This is the key problem with leftist-statist planned economies. First, leftists think redistributing wealth is actually the same as creating it. Although one person at one end of the transaction may actually have more money, they may not produce anything at all. Factor in the government inefficiency and overhead and it is thoroughly wealth destructive.
Second, playing with money through inflation, interest rate controls, exchange rates, etc. gives the illusion of wealth but it is either no net gain or even negative. This is behind the ideas of central banks, the Fed and monetary policiies. It benefits only a narrow band of currency speculators at the expense of all others.
Last, in a real economy, with real prosperity, REAL products and services must be produced. It is the ONLY way to increase the living standards and wealth of people. There is no other way and it is not easy. Only free people who can prosper from their innovation and efficiencies can create the global wealth that everyone seeks.
Everyone outside of the protected government sector knows there is no real recovery in the real economy.
Scumbaggery pays good these days.
Don't worry us 60+ hour guys are making up for them.
60 hours thats alot of hours. Not much time for a life. Been there. Its ok if your are young sort of.
That is about how many work for a government agency.
That is about how many work for a government agency.
I had a boss once that was an "Office Space" Luberg clone. Just a prick. Lasted a few years, had fun, but i couldn't take it (management). Years later (this was some time ago) the whole place closed down.
This is just what i've heard, but locally the government jobs have even turned pretty crappy (at least with benefits/pay). They still have pensions, but even those you need to pay into (the horror!)...not to mention back in the good ole days, you could start a job right out of high school...today the new guys are mid 20s or better.
My first job was working in the elementary school cafeteria at lunch in fifth grade. I found out that for one hour of work I would get a $0.25 lunch(I don't think it was anywhere near that, seems like a nickel or dime).
Did that every year all the way through high school.
In the meantime, my first, real, paying job was as an Assistant Cook at a Dude Ranch about five miles walk up the road. I think I was paid about $1.15/hr in 1973.
Between the family ranch and the Dude Ranch I think my average weekly pay was about $0.18.
At eleven, in 1973, earning $0.18 an hour was an impressive achievement.
These days it would bring in Child Protective Services, the Sheriff's Department, some school bureaucracy, and a hundred thousand lawyers.
We can declare Mission Accomplished when we get that 44% down to 0%
The few, the proud. Food for IRS wolves, Conan?
I feed the truly needy. They are about 0.1%. Depending on age the transient needy are 1-3%. Those worthy of a hand up. The rest of the crows, vultures and worms are feeding on you.
Everywhere.
I should be free to decide who I help, not coerced to give my core subsistance to some corrupt, ineffective State or religious failed pogrom.
AMERICA
old phart, I too have worked since the age of 12. Picking fruit in summers in Michigan orchards. Bought my first shotgun with my earnings. An Ithaca single shot 20ga break action w/lever and hammer. That was a proud 12 year old end of that summer. That shotgun was 30 dollars and change. I earned a nickel a quart for strawberries. 40 cents for a 10 quart pail of sweet and tart cherries and 1 dollar for a 10 quart pail of blueberries. We rode our bikes from the city out to the orchards. 6 to 12 miles depending which orchards we worked at.
At 15 bag boy in grocery store during school year. 1.60 an hour. At 16, 17 four nights a week and Saturdays in a restaurant. 1.75 an hour. I worked until 1130 at night on school nights and at bus stop at 620 AM. Out of high school and worked as apprentice meat cutter. 5.10 an hour after a year.
Early 20s trained as a chef. I worked for indiviidual family owned restaurants and some national brand chains. 20 to 45 K until 1989 at last country club job. I routinely worked 6 and 7 day works weeks. 9 am to 10 pm common in country club setting six days a week. "Off day Monday 4 hours to order product, maintain clenliness and equipment." Celebrity chef anyone? All glamorized bullshit. I loved the food business though it is a young mans job.
I went into sales. Built a business. Sold it 2 years later as those who say don't go into business with family should be listened to. I opened 2 major markets for a family owned business with 70s values. Company expanded from 3 to 14 major midwest cities in my 17 years with them. I ended up as sales manager for 2 of the biggest cities. In 2009 when the world came crashing down I was out of work as the company went BK. 42 year old manufacturer. The factory equipement was sold for 7 cents on a dollar as I recall. I was 55 year old white guy out on the street looking for work.
I have met dozens of men in my age group downsized, let go, fired, no longer needed. Since, I have gotten back into sales and doing ok. For almost a year I worked cooking in a nursing home kitchen. 11 bucks an hour. My boss was my youngest daughters age. I was the oldest whitest employee in the place. She asked me for advice and I freely gave it. In the 80's I had managed food businesses that did multiple millions in food sales. I loved it. I met many senior citizens who just wanted to talk to someone.
We had 7 kids in a 3 bedroom one bath house growing up. We were taught 2 things. Work hard and yes sir and yes maam. I will never lack. I am willing to work. I will always work. I will work while it is day. I will work while it is night. All work is honorable. It is what built this country. Hard and often dirty work. I worked a summer on a kill floor in a beef plant. It stunk. It was hot. It was bloody. It paid for a year of junior college.
I will be 60 this summer. I have three lovely daughters, three sons in law that love and respect them, 5 grand kids and am married to the only woman on earth that would put up with me. It is not me I fear for. It is my kids and grand kids. America is an idea. It can be lost in a generation. If not here, where? If not now, when? If not our generation, whose?
See, America is an idea, a ghost, a fleeting moment in time when the iron fist of dictatorship, despotism and oligarchy has been held at bay for a few hundred years. It is not a normal situation for mankind if you are a true student of world history.
Sorry, I have rambled on. Is America worth fixing? Look into your grandkids eyes before you answer that too hastily, good weekend to all.
Not rambling DH, it's the truth. I will also b 60 this year and my background similar to yours although I grew up in Bronx. Paper route at 10, grocery store after school and Saturday when I turned 14. Paid for college where I had a series of banking jobs. Luckily I worked in a time where corporations cared about employees and was able to put 2 kids thru college and pay for weddings. Last June downsized and this month the package runs out. Being an older white male is like being a leper in today's multicultural, I gotta have moar stuff society. We r no longer Americans, we r black, gay, American Indian, Latino, female, etc. this Balkanization of the country will b it's demise. It was a nice run but way too short. I wish you well.
Hat tip, sir and much respect.
Damn good ramble. Thanks sir.
Deerhunter, my past and yours are pretty similar. Started off working early for little. When there is a wife and children depending on you, you step up to the plate.
Like you I am working for a fraction of what I used to make but it is enough to meet my needs and my time is flexible, although I still do 60 - 70 hours a week. I have been self emloyed since 82. My youngest son is self employed and my other two both have jobs.
I liked the old days as there was always something for work, and if you wanted to earn a lot, there were always the mines and the North Hill in Alaska.
Today .gov has taken the work experience away from much of the young and many are spoiled. I was driving by field workers in Southern California a few years back, not one white face to be seen, all Mexican. I worked in fields, picked crops as a youth. Today it appears to be beneath so many to do menial, often dirty tasks. Let a foreigner do it. Look at the convenience stores and taxi drivers, most are all immigrants. It is a start and they know it. Many sacrifice and in the end win...economically.
Nothing wrong with work and taking pride in a job well done.
If he'd just listen to National Propaganda Radio, he'd know that the economy is fine, markets are up, housing starts are up, and the unemployment rate is the lowest since anyone can remember.
I heard that in 5 minutes of unintentionally landing on the local arm.
I couldn't take more than 5 minutes without going bonkers, because you see I'm allergic to bullshit.
Isn't it "funny" how these Boffo employment #s came out directly after the CEO of Gallup said the unemployment rate was a lie? Hmmm......
"Traditionally, small businesses have been the primary engine of job growth for the U.S. economy. But for each of the past six years, the number of new businesses being created has been lower than the number of businesses that have died."
Big government progressives are loving this shit, frothing at the mouth for it, all hands on deck cheering and clapping. Hussein Obama just proposed MOAR taxes to make sure business is totally crushed.
And the progressives cheer louder!
Grimaldus
I'm sorry, but this is news to who exactly???
In the early 1960s, employment was defined as 40hours/week... ONGOING!
By that standard, ( when unemployment was around 3% ) the unemployment
rate has been over 60% for most of the last 30 years.
As they say... nothing to see here...
Wealth is earned not 'distributed'. It's not like a helicopter just shows up and favors a few people by giving them more money. Of course leftists don't understand this because most of them have never worked a day in their life. One of the great challenges is that the language we use is so bastardized that liberating yourself from it is the first step toward defeating the progressive statists.