Who wants to keep their job?

I was going to write a blog about employment opportunities ( or the lack thereof) last year, but decided not to at the time. Recent events and news have changed my mind for me. I read an article yesterday dealing with the fact that our wages have actually gone down in the past 20 years when you factor in inflation and loss of benefits and job security. Employers are in the catbird seat when it comes to hiring decisions and payroll amounts. It seems their whole attitude is one of " be glad you have a job and oh yeah, let me shit on you some more". Unless you have some serious parchment on the wall and the skills most sought after in a particular business, you are shit out of luck. There is always someone younger and hungrier than you these days. In my case, with no college and only 30 years experience in my field, it is tough to find anything better because employers know that I know more than they do so they wouldn't be able to bullshit me like a more inexperienced younger person. Also, with so much reliance on computers to solve their business problems, experience and intuition are not as important anymore. That's a scary thought in the years to come! Maybe nothing will fall down! I watched the recent events in Wisconsin, which amounts to union-busting and at first, I thought "Who needs unions now?" I have since realized that maybe we still need them since employers seem to be hell-bent on taking away most worker rights in the name of budget cutting. Of course, that only pertains to the jobs they are keeping in the US, not those going to India. A little more than 2 years ago, I took a big cut in pay and hours. Things continue to get worse. In the name of "tightening the proverbial belt", my sidekick worked his last day today. Now, I have to do his job and mine for the same pay. As slow as it is, it isn't a problem yet, but any bump in orders will change that. I will be curious to see how well this works out as there is no more room to cut. A one employee company doesn't have many options. It's interesting that production is up, even though the working population is down. Apparently, everyone is working harder for less, just to keep from being replaced by the burgeoning unemployed. I hope that things turn around to the point that we as employees can, at some point, do our own arm-twisting!

Spinning the numbers

I watched Clark Howard on HNN the other day and he was reporting about Toys-R-Us opening "popup" stores (in malls, I guess) for the holidays and how they would be hiring 10,000 people to work in these stores. I got to thinking of how our leaders would spin something like that. "Oh, we created 10,000 jobs!" Don't mention that those jobs are only for 2 months. By the way, I think Toys-R-Us sells mostly crap. I tried to return something without the receipt once, and they said they could only give me credit for the lowest advertised price within the last 6 months. Turns out, the product I was trying to return (because it was a piece of crap), was offered free if some other product was purchased. So, it was only worth $0!

Speaking of jobs, when they announce that unemployment numbers went down it might just be because someone's unemployment ran out but they still can't find a job. But hey, Toys-R-Us is hiring! The downside is that if they have a choice between a brand new college degree and an older, more experienced non-grad, they will pick the younger one every time. That's why common sense has disappeared in the marketplace.

Back to numbers. Economists are bitching about the halt in foreclosures by the leading mortgage lenders. Less foreclosures mean less sales as the houses sit in limbo. What is so stupid about the whole thing is that a bank foreclosure counts as a home sale. So, if home sales are up in November, it could be just because foreclosures are up. How does that make any sense? It's just the way our leaders spin the news.

This just in! The courts in Vladivostok, Russia just seized a woman's pig for payment of a debt. She owes a bank $432 and a court survey determined that the piglet was her most valuable possession. I'd hate to see what her house looks like!

The recession is over!! Woohoo!!

Jay Leno informed me the other night that the recession is over and has been over since June 2009. Holy crap! It ended and I didn't notice! Wow, I've been living like the recession is still going strong. How embarrassing! Everyone is probably laughing at me behind my back for driving a dusty old piece of crap and hanging out at the laundromat. Seriously, a group of egghead bean counting professors from the National Bureau of Economic Research made this claim and based it on a bunch of GDP, GDI, and IIP indexes and reports. I think if they're so damn smart, why aren't they all millionaires? Anybody can sit around and make up bullshit but these guys are supposed to be the experts. One guy who doesn't think the recession has ended is Warren Buffett. Since he is a bazillionaire, I would tend to believe him more than those other guys. I just hope our elected rulers don't use the NBER report to pat themselves on the back although it wouldn't surprise me if they did.

Laying in bed thinking about stuff

I couldn't go to sleep fast enough last night and when that happens, my mind thinks too much. I'm going to write it all down and hopefully remember everything I thought about. I started thinking about US companies moving production lines to other countries and how many products we buy that are made in foreign countries. What drives companies to shut down US operations and move? At face value, it looks like lower wages in other countries. They are so much lower that supposedly products can be made there and shipped back to us cheaper, thus making the company more money. What's odd about that thinking is that many foreign car manufacturers are doing the opposite. They are making their cars in the US. One would think that building a Honda in Japan and shipping it here would be cheaper and would make the price lower but that's not the case. Many times, Hondas were more expensive, as were other foreign makes. Now, they are made in the US, with no affect on the price. Why is that? Unfortunately, the current recession tends to make us look for the best deal, regardless of where it was made. Our stores don't help much either. Most times, there aren't US made alternatives to Chinese products. Look at Walmart. They used to promote the whole "made in USA" thing but good luck trying to find something there that is made in the USA now. You would think the Chinese own Walmart! If only we could get to a position where stuff was made and sold in the US like it used to be. Unemployment would drop and our huge trade imbalance would lessen. It would keep more money in the US where it belongs. Putting people to work would settle the housing market, too. Where did our pride in US manufacturing go? I guess US manufacturers have to move jobs overseas to compete with importers. Why can't we impose more tariffs to level the playing field? Congress isn't much help. They are all so deep in foreign pockets that we can't get any legitimate legislation to settle the trade issues. I wish I could find out what kind of margins the US companies are dealing with. Somebody is making the big bucks and it ain't the peanut farmers.

Update on Obama's public works initiative

There's an AP news article out today http://tinyurl.com/yje9nlf that critiques the government's push to increase road and bridge building to combat the rampant unemployment we face today. The article states that there has been no discernible change in the unemployment rate in areas where these projects have started. I have always felt that the bulk of the money spent on these projects has been for equipment and materials and not labor. Getting these types of projects off the ground is truly like watching our government at work. It all moves at a snail's pace. Check out my blog of 05-11-09. I told you so!! The industry that needs the most help is anything related to wood construction. That whole industry is stagnating. It was a year ago today that my boss/company owner called me into his office and proceeded to cut my income by 50% and subsequently sold the company. He said he didn't want to lose any money :( A year later, I'm still here but not any busier. Every contractor and developer I talk to says that there is no financing available. Putting people back to work is the key to improving our economy. I think the whole "green" deal like solar panels and biofuels is great but most of the proposed projects are bogged down in red tape and, believe or not, waiting on financing approval!