Why Unemployment Will Hit 11 Percent

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The real problem is that, as always, we are doing more with less - and it will truly be the death of us. Companies are making quantum leaps in doing more with less, to where 7 now do the work of 10 only a few years ago. Great for the company's bottom line, death to jobs and sure-fire guarantee to increased taxes and continued growth of welfare demand in the future.
In college I had a debate with a professor who lauded the Japanese system of Continuous Improvement - he cited for example the ideal factory: One person comes in, flips a switch, and comes back 8 hours later and turns it off. All else done by precise machines, so perfect. Lowest overhead, cheap costs, good products, inexpensive final prices. I had to ask, "Ok...I give...who buys the final goods?" He derrided me in class, making fun of my stupidity, that of course, it will be everyone in those even-better jobs elsewhere, that gets paid so good that they can afford the good from the first plant. I quickly corrected, that since all other plants would have copied the first plant's system to compete, then there is only one employee per plant, and 90+% of all employees are now unemployed...who works, who gets paid, so that goods can be bought. Well, quickly he changed subject...and hence, I have lived to the point that I now see, my rebuttal was actualized in real life. So...what happens when unemployment is 20+%, and financial gains are by cost reductions from historical standards, and there is no more service industry left to offload all the previous skilled workers into, for there are only so many burgers you can flip in a floating 6-hour shift at $7.50 per hour...which won't buy you that Lexus, even if you beg for it.
I was young and lived through the 1970's, when we knew it would improve. I was working in the 1980's, when we thought Regan would fix banking and the unions and we would return to work and grow again. I raised a family in the 1990's, and swooned over the markets while worrying about the potential of being replaced by a computer program, or in Clinton giving my job to Preferred Trading Partner China - and hoping that all would return to normal eventually...in the 2000's I fought and struggled to hold onto my job, with more college degrees than the number of tick-marks on a thermometer, yet more insecure I would have a job the next day than any other time in my life...watching MBA's play poker with many people's lives, kids from Harvard who had never been on a shop floor at all. I realized at the end of this just-passed decade, that it not only will never get better - but it has only gotten worse. Much like seeing a war movie, when the sun rises and you witness the remaining carnage on the field, you know that there is little left that they CAN destroy, then you see that it must be the end. We are truly there. The charges are set, all they need to do is to blow their charges, and watch the carnage they prepared for. Welcome to the end of the war.

nom de plume of MI 10:28PM January 13, 2010

If you dont know the facts about unemployment you really shouldn't speak on it. Facts about unemployment, that 10% we are at now ONLY counts people receiving unemployment. You remain on that list for 90days AFTER your benifits end unless you canceled them early because you started work. Sadly If you lost your job early in the recession like i did and your benifits expired then you do not count on that list, if you are working or not. This recession is over 2 years old, and the extensions of benifits were added in the last year or so, thus we can assume the true unemployment numbers are easilly 15-20%. If you want to break it down alot easier, How many jobs were "LOST" in these 3 years, vs the population. In the year of 2009 alone over 2mil jobs were lost. thats almost 1% of the total population, including new borns, disabled, and others who cannot work. So how is it, people are not Trying to work, by the numbers it's not even possible. Again since i beleive you do not understand normal logic. If their are 100 jobs and 100 people in an area, and you remove 30 jobs.... the 30people who were in those jobs where do they find temp work? cuz now theirs 70jobs 100people. I say theirs a few ways we can go about it, we can ask the companies to expand, kill people with jobs, or go to another country. Since your smart you tell me which you'd do?

KD of Detroit of MI 3:53AM December 26, 2009

James in CA, I hear you, brother. I've got a degree in Geology and I can't even get a stinking office job or hired on at McDumbald's.
I know that when some BA in Business dips*t in human resources looks at my resume they don't grasp the superiority of our degrees.
So, screw 'em, I started my own company. lol, I'll hire an Engineer any day over a Bizniss majur.

From CALI to ALA of AL 9:02AM December 21, 2009

It is nice to be an optimist... but we have yet to see the worst happen.

H. of WA 6:17PM December 19, 2009

To Dh of CA and others who believe that if you're one of the unfortunate who is out of a job, accepting "temporary" employment is better than receiving [your rightful] unemployment benefits. Once you do that, you lose your unemployment benefits. Please explain "how" the average person survives with 'unemployment benefits' let alone, anything less from a "temporary" job?!!
You must be a supporter of the current administration who have bankrupted this Nation for their own personal greed and power! You state that " ... until the government puts its foot down and FORCES (?) people to take jobs they do NOT necessarily WANT, unemployment will REMAIN ARTIFICIALLY high"?? Are YOU crazy??? WHAT JOBS, Dh?? The GOVERNMENT has CAUSED the unemployment rate to be the worst ever! WAKE UP!! By the way, ... are YOU still employed??? YOU NEED a reality check!

4EverMoi of OH 7:59AM December 07, 2009

hey Al in alabama- hats off to ya ol fart! hang in there and pray for a miracle...I am in the same boat but i am younger and have more of an opportunity than you...still can't find a job..unemployment is feeding my kids and paying for the roof over my head...SOOOO dh in CA you are probably employed and do not have to look for the so called temporary jobs that are NOT out there! i do not wan to be taken care of by the US Gov but right now...it is all my family has!

DB of CA 9:57PM December 03, 2009

if the pres well stop working on the health system and start working on job for the people of the u.s and take ALL that money and all is time all the people that are working on this health system he has blow aways on something the people do not want and start going after the oil company for raise gas prices and start keeping the job in the U.S and start doing the thing he say he was going to do about job for the people will be back to work

joe of FL 7:39PM December 03, 2009

Perhaps one of the major reasons unemployment remains high is due to the fact that the vast majority of laid-off workers refuse to get a temporary job that is outside their preferred field of work - they are happy to milk the 99-weeks of unemployment benefits . You can't blame them, of course - if the government is going to enable this kind of behavior, only an idiot would not take advantage of it. Unfortunately, until the government puts its foot down and forces people to take jobs they do not necessarily want, unemployment will remain artificially high.

Dh of CA 1:28PM December 03, 2009

Me too guys....24 years with the same company,"POOF"...job gone,401 k
destroyed,lost 65%.Scraped out what was left to keep the mortgage up to
date & food on the table.Unemployment running out,savings gone.Looked
everywhere for a job.No one is hiring old geezers.Dems say jobs saved,
yeah,right....theirs..The average Joe,which is me,S.O.L...I WANT to go
back to work!!!..This countries problem is we have only politicians,that's
it.....NO LEADERS!!...Big..Big difference between the 2.By mid 2010 I'll
face foreclosure,no job,no money,no car......No hope..Mortgage company tells me to pay up or get out...I want no pity,I want no handout,I don't want to be a ward of the state.What I do want is a chance out there to get a job that will save what little I have left.Old farts like me don't have many working years left to do this.So time's a wasting Obama.I lived
within my means,did'nt go out and buy bling,stuck to the basics,own
an old house,drive an old car,have thrift store furniture & did what I was
supposed to do.Paid my bills,my taxes,took care of my stuff,went to
work on time everyday & did my job..Wall street has commited domestic
treason,robbed all our wealth & just walked away.Our inept politicians
have'nt got those accountable indicted,convicted & in jail,to worried that
their re-election coffers are running low,they already got their share.
GOD bless all of you out there like me,in the same lifeboat adrift in a sea
of despair,hoping,praying this nightmare will end & we get back on our
feet.Maybe I'll bump into you in the soup kitchen line & we can chat..
Regards........

Al Tingle of AL 7:56AM December 03, 2009

The fundamental problem with this country is that our governmental institutions live well beyond their means. The real wealth generating industries are leaving our country. We will wake up one day standing on a mountain of paper dollars that we realize are worthless. The boom bust cycles are caused by our banking systems constantly inflating our currency. We buy it for awhile then realize that all the "wealth" in the country is not real, then 1.2 trillion dollars of "wealth" disappears from the stock market, from our home values, etc. I am one of the people who lived well within my means, I worked hard, saved, bought a house, invested and now all I have to show for it is a house that is worth less than half of what I paid, a 401k that is worthless, and to top it off no job. I am not one of these stupid people that the press likes to talk about, saying "you lived beyond your means", I am college educated and have a masters degree in engineering. Now I clean toilets and mop floors.

James of CA 5:02PM December 01, 2009