Tag Archives: Unemployment

News

Teens face worst summer job market in 41 years

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From CNBC.

Excerpt:

Employment among 16-to 19-year olds in May grew by just 6,000, the smallest increase since 1969, when teen jobs fell by 14,000, according to government data analyzed by employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In May 2008 and 2009, teen employment grew by over 110,000.

[…]Jobs traditionally given to teens are apparently going to older workers who are willing to take low paying job to make ends meet. Employment among 20- to 24-year-olds grew by 270,000 in May, an unusual spike, considering that employment in the same age group fell by 261,000 in May 2009.

[…]”Also impacting the job market for young adults are the large number of older adults who are willing to accept even a temporary, seasonal position simply to generate some income,” said Steven Rothberg, chief executive officer of CollegeRecruiter.com, an online entry-level job-posting site.

“We’re seeing experienced candidates taking jobs normally reserved for college grads and college grads taking jobs normally reserved for college students,” said Rothberg.

And this table is at the bottom of the article:

Summer Employment Growth Among 16- to 19-Year-Olds

Year May June July Total Gained Change
2005 183,000 1,007,000 546,000 1,736,000 +9.0%
2006 230,000 1,033,000 471,000 1,734,000 -0.1%
2007 62,000 1,114,000 459,000 1,635,000 -5.7%
2008 116,000 683,000 355,000 1,154,000 -29.4%
2009 111,000 698,000 354,000 1,163,000 0.8%
2010 6,000 N/A N/A 6,000 N/A
Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas

The Democrats took control of the House in January of 2007, and that means they controlled government spending from then on.

I find these job numbers interesting because the young people are so pro-Obama, but for superficial reasons. I wonder how they will reconcile their love of Obama’s socialism with their difficulties finding summer jobs from small businesses hurt by Obama’s health care mandates? Or won’t they understand why it’s happening at all?

I wonder if employers are concerned about the quality of education being provided to young people? Or perhaps they are not satisfied with the work ethic of young people who have been raised on self-esteem instead of on achievement and competition?

News

Did Obamacare really provide a tax cut for small businesses?

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Check out this AP article. (H/T Michele Bachmann)

Excerpt:

When the administration unveiled the small business tax credit earlier this week, officials touted its “broad eligibility” for companies with fewer than 25 workers and average annual wages under $50,000 that provide health coverage.

[…]Lost in the fine print: The credit drops off sharply once a company gets above 10 workers and $25,000 average annual wages.

[…]Consider small businesses: “The idea here is to target the credits to a relatively low number of firms, those who are low-wage and really quite small,” said economist Linda Blumberg of the Urban Institute public policy center.

On paper, the credit seems to be available to companies with fewer than 25 workers and average wages of $50,000. But in practice, a complicated formula that combines the two numbers works against companies that have more than 10 workers and $25,000 in average wages, Blumberg said.

“You can get zero even if you are not hitting the max on both pieces,” Blumberg said.

[…]Hoffman, the furniture store owner whose business missed out on the credit, says he understands that lawmakers writing the health care legislation had a limited amount of money to work with. But his company’s premiums rose 15 percent this year, and it’s a struggle to keep paying.

To get the most out of the new federal credit, Hoffman said he’d have to cut his work force to 10 employees and slash their wages.

“That seems like a strange outcome, given we’ve got 10 percent unemployment,” he said.

So, the government is actually paying businesses to NOT HIRE EMPLOYEES and to NOT RAISE SALARIES. That’s the only way small businesses can get the tax credit.

Michele writes:

Unfortunately, this bill will only discourage small businesses from raising wages and/or hiring more employees.  The business owners and employers in Minnesota I’ve met with all have said one thing: the uncertainty of the newly passed Health Care bill is keeping them from hiring and expanding.

Businesses are run by people who put their own skin in the game by risking capital to try to make a profit. That capital is often borrowed from family, friends or banks. And when business owners see that government is passing laws that take away the decision making power of the business owner and give it to government bureaucrats with no skin in the game, business owners get frightened – they are taking all the risks but the government is making the decisions. And government isn’t as good at making decisions for a business to avoid losses as the business owner is.

So even though Obama spends trillions of dollars, bankrupting the next generation of taxpayers, it can still be the case that unemployment increases. He’s killing the economy with his meddling – just the same way as interventionists like Hoover and FDR did during the Great Depression. When business owners see that the rules are changing under them because of state intervention into the economy, they just don’t have the confidence needed to expand their businesses, hire employees, or raise salaries.

And don’t forget that the money for the “tax credit” is being taken from your children, who will eventually have to pay for all of Obama’s spending.

Commentary

Parents need to take reponsibility for their children’s prosperity

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Here’s a post from Caffeinated Thoughts. It’s about parenting, faith and prosperity.

Excerpt:

It is my job, as a parent, to raise and protect the children that God has given me. It goes beyond the obvious needs of food, clothing and shelter and into an even greater need of “Train(ing) a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6.  Raising a child involves love, discipline, education and looking out for their needs now, as it will affect them when they are old. If parents in America only provide for a child’s physical needs, forgetting to nurture the whole child, then American parents have done nothing more than what a wild animal does for its offspring. My work as a parent goes well beyond the obvious and must be intentional in training, raising, and nurturing them into moral, ethical and God-fearing adults who will in turn also raise a generation who live and do likewise.

I must also fight for the ethical and moral rights of my children in the political arena, as they are unable to do so for themselves. As [Thomas] Paine stated, “We ought to do the work of it, otherwise we use them meanly and pitifully.” He was looking at his posterity realizing that the condition of the country in which they lived needed a drastic overhaul and unless the adults stepped up and took the initiative, the children would suffer for it.

I like this post because it mentions protecting children’s relationships with God as well as their future economic well-being. I think that most people look at their children and think that their faith will be fine, and that their standard of living will as good as the parent’s, or better. But if we want to give those good things to our children, we need to be careful about how we teach them and how we vote. We can’t just “hope for the best” and expect things to work out – 80% of the young people who attend church through high school fall away from their faith. And the unemployment rate for young people today is over 50%.