An Unseen Economic Albatross: Labor-Force Dropouts

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I hear the pain in most of the postings. However, where I am the situation is very different.
I work for an investment bank as a senior programmer (and team leader). The salaries are 90K and up (usually a lot up). As a team leader, I am responsible for hiring, and find it difficult to fill positions with qualified people. Out of every 2 employment offers initially accepted, only 1 person actually joins, and the others go elsewhere. The market is strong - I am getting calls and emails of head hunters trying to recruit me to another position.
Another interesting item to notice is that almost all the qualified programmers are not originally Americans (and as you can deduce from my name, neither am I). Also, outsourcing is highly exaggerated. Yes, some programming jobs went to China, India and elsewhere. However, these are the low end jobs. When quality software is needed and/or quick turnaround, local programmers are used.
Bottom line: if you are really good, you can have a good job, at least in investment banking IT.

Ofer of NJ 3:30PM January 09, 2010

Three days ago I saw the movie, "Up in the air". The star was a terminator. Today many people could be part of that picture. But that would not be me. As I am 74 years old and retired. I seat on the side lines and watchedas others go through the same thing I did.
The worst part of my career was when I was old and lost my job and was unemployed because of age discrimination. A thing supported by the government and law courts. I was lucky that Y2K occurred otherwise I would have stayed out of work longer. My job was programming a computer. Now most of the work is either done by contractors or outsourced.
The worker has now become powerless which situation corporations and government have created. Whether you vote democratic or Republican, both support the position of having powerless workers. And this is backed by the law courts with the at will law.
In the global market that american worker makes on the average $40,000 versus the chinese worker making $30 a month. Not a fair competition, so the american is the loser. Don't expect to see the return of good paying jobs. But maybe you can get a job a wal-mart with your college degree as they upgrade there work force. And the government, they will be reforming social security and medicare. Isn't things wonderful?

Arthur Gittleman of AR 2:10PM January 09, 2010

Besides auto accidents resulting from texting while driving, I see another problem for the long-term from this activity. That is thumb problems caused by repeditive stress-type conditions. As a someone who suffers from bi-lateral carpal tunnel syndrome believed to be caused by computer usage at work (did not have a home computer during work years), texters should learn from my problem. Another problem to watch out for, deafness/hearing problems caused by long-term exposure to loud music and/or other sounds both at work and/or during pleasure-type activities. Like the failure to deal with the problems w/America's infrastructure (roads, bridges, water supplies, sewers, etc.), we in the U.S. do not seem able to plan for problems until they became major ones!

Steve Goldman of OH 8:00AM January 09, 2010

Having given up on job hunt I can now campaign door to door full time to get the lunatics out of office.

Runnymede of FL 7:37AM January 09, 2010

Now that we see people with little skill and less education having an especially difficult time supporting themselves, one prediction seems obvious: Obama will propose to make things worse by allowing in even more unskilled, uneducated immigrants and by protecting those already here from deportation. He will cover this betrayal of the American worker with a toothless pledge to protect the border.

Ted Shepherd of NV 10:35PM January 08, 2010

It's a shame that the 30% of America who are on the government dole, or too religiously progressive can't understand the damage this experiment of the Liberalism has been. This is what brought down the USSR and gave birth to Adolph. No kidding the similarities are scary. When people like Pelosi and Reid are running this country behind closed doors, God help us.

jerome kaplan of NC 10:19PM January 08, 2010

Wow, these people are finally getting a true picture of the American economy. So many people have just stopped looking for jobs because the truth is that it take a lot of money to get a job today. First you have to have a suit for the interview, you need a car with gas to get to the interview. You need a cell phone that they can call if you are lucky enough to get a callback. You need access to a computer and internet connections to send your applications and resumes. And finally, you need lots of money for certified transcripts, application fees and professional association fees. No wonder lots of people are simply dropping out when the finances get below critical mass. I have wasted hundreds of dollars chasing after jobs that never materialized and now I am forced to just hunker down for the long cold winter and try to stay warm and fed. It is time to change the way they calculate the unemployed figures so the politicians can see the true picture of America.

Mike of FL 9:27PM January 08, 2010

This unemployment iceberg is going to do for American politics what that other one did to the Titanic. Sink a lot of politicians along with their elitist bureaucrats, academics and pundits. The self-regarding Ivy League products have blown it big time.
How must the 18 million disaffected unemployed feel now when they see the bankers' obscene bonuses, the futile politiking in Washington and the corruption. Unhappily, there is no way out but to face the consequences of too much debt and take the loss. This is a traumatic debt crisis and a debt crisis cannot be resolved by piling on more debt which the Administration and Mr Bernanke's Fed are doing.
Given the talent for incompetence already shown by the Obama Administration it is highly likely that whatever they do will be wrong because they do not seem to have either the experience or the mindset to do anything right. For them to do the right thing (eg Ron Paul's agenda) requires Mr Obama to experience a conversion on the road to Damascus - and learn something about business, profits, risk and uncertainty.

Donlast 8:09PM January 08, 2010

I thought Bush was bad and voted Democratic. Won't make that mistake for a long, long time again. Obama knows NOTHING about running an economy and Pelosi and Reid are too Socialistic to make a positive change.
Bring back the Republicans...... QUICKLY......

Teetering of TN 7:26PM January 08, 2010