With so many manufacturing jobs permanently moved overseas and the government only willing to bail out the wealthy, where are these people supposed to go?

The numbers tell so much of the story. The 6.76 million Americans — or 46% of the entire unemployed labor force — counted as long-term unemployed in June were the most since 1948, when the statistic was first recorded, and more than double the previous record of 3 million in the recession of the early 1980s. (The numbers have since dipped slightly, with a total of 6.2 million long-term unemployed in August.) These are people who, despite dozens of rejections, leave phone messages, send emails, tweak their cover letters, and toy with resume templates in Microsoft Word, all in the search for a job.

Not counted in this figure are so-called “discouraged workers,” including plenty of former searchers who have remained on the unemployment sidelines for six months or more. In August of this year, 1.1 million Americans had simply stopped looking and so officially dropped out of the workforce. They are essentially not considered worth counting when the subject of unemployment comes up. Nonetheless, that 1.1 million figure represents an increase of 352,000 since 2009. In effect, the real long-term unemployment figure now may be closer to 7.5 million Americans.

So who are these unfortunate or unlucky people? Long-term unemployment, research shows, doesn’t discriminate: no age, race, ethnicity, or educational level is immune.
[…]
As for the causes of long-term unemployment, there’s the obvious answer: there simply aren’t enough jobs. Before the Great Recession, there were 1.5 workers in the U.S. for every job slot; today, that ratio is 4.8 to one. Put another way, with normal growth instead of a recession, we’d have 10 million more jobs than we currently do. Closing that gap would require adding 300,000 jobs every month for the next five years. In August 2010, the economy shed 54,000 jobs. You do the math.

Worse yet, if you imagine five workers queued up for that single position, the longer you’re unemployed, the further back you stand. Economists have found that long-term unemployment dims a worker’s prospects with each passing day. “This pattern suggests that the very-long-term unemployed will be the last group to benefit from an economic recovery,” Michael Reich, an economist at the University of California-Berkeley, told Congress in June.




  1. Get over it already says:

    My semi retired mother is working close to 40 hours a week in retail. Not because she wants to, but because they can’t find people to fill three positions. Why? because people want pay checks, not jobs. Right now on the tube, local news, job service has more positions open for manufacturing than they have applicants. The permanent non-working class simply does not want to WORK. I have never been unemployed for more than one month. That’s in more than thirty years. I have had two jobs leave out from under me in auto parts manufacturing. Did I do jobs I didn’t like? yes, did I do jobs that didn’t pay as well as other? yes. But I kept working and moving to jobs that paid better with better benefits packages. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, not what you want to do.

  2. canamrotax says:

    I’m watching this all from the other side of the northern border. Looks like there will be a fascinating breaking point sometime in the future. Should make Fallout 3 look like a picnic…

  3. Shiggy says:

    Why work as long as the gov’t keeps extending unemployment benefits? Why work for $15 an hour when you can make $12/hr doing nothing but sitting on your ass? There is a reason that the average length of unemployment goes up when you extend unemployment benefits – people have less motive to find a job or take a job that they otherwise would not.

    You know what, though – the US is full of people who took low paying jobs and worked their way to the top or used the skills they gained to start their own business. If you never take a job in the first place, you have no chance.

  4. jescott418 says:

    For young people the military has become the way to prosperity. College certainly does not guarantee you a good job. Plus, you now have the over 50 year olds who thought they would retire at their last job. But now find themselves in a already crowded and poor paying job market. But we should all know this did not come about overnight.

  5. Dallas says:

    #34 Wrong. College is still the best way to get ahead. Don’t kid yourself. Any job will first go to the best qualified and when all else is equal, the person with a better education usually wins .

    While I agree that the military is now a jobs program, it is a bad bet.

  6. DrXbox423z says:

    Possession of Marijuana with Intent to sell.

    Now the only job I can get is starting my own business. Every place I apply the felony comes up and im shown the door, sometimes with security.

    A+ certified Tech been doing PC repair, MS networking since 96.

    Now ill do a modchip, help people copy their discs, show people how to secure their computers from the feds, sell pot, whatever it takes to make a buck Society slammed the door in my face so im in their childrens faces with drugs and fun.

  7. Mextli says:

    #15 “You knew anything about it, you would find high tech companies put water back into the ground CLEANER than they got it out.”

    They seem to have skipped that process in China.

    Vodafone, BT and 27 other leading technology companies must do more to come clean about the potentially dirty and dangerous side of their manufacturing operations in China, according to a new investigation into heavy metal poisoning in the supply chains of global IT brands.

    The investigation – carried out by a coalition of 34 Chinese environmental groups – traced a link between lead and cadmium contamination cases and the production of materials for mobile phone batteries and computer circuit boards for foreign companies.

  8. sargasso_c says:

    Lord Robert Baden-Powell (on bees) “They are a quite a model community for they respect their Queen and kill their unemployed”. Which pretty much sums up the opinion of the wealthy (and old Boy Scouts) on the subject of a final solution to unemployment.

  9. jccalhoun says:

    We’ve had an underclass of underemployed for a decade or so, with long-term “temp” workers. Why wouldn’t we have an unemployed class?

  10. DaveO says:

    Prosperity is just around the corner. -Jesus Hitler

  11. Uncle Patso says:

    First under Reagan, then under Bush the First, then under Bush the Second, I used to say half-jokingly “They’re trying to turn our country into Haiti.” Little did I realize just how deadly serious they would turn out to be about it…

    By “they” of course I mean the very wealthy and their lickspittle, toady, Quisling suck-ups: the modern Republican party and ultra-conservatives in general.

    I’m frankly shocked anew every day lately at just how much progress has been made toward the Haiti-fication of America. Already, just a few own about half of everything, and at the rate we’re going, the rest of us won’t have what little we still have for long. (Excuse me while I put another heirloom up on eBay…) While at the same time they’ve managed to COMPLETELY fool most of the people all of the time. I suppose when 90% of the population are living in Hoovervilles (you could look it up), they’ll all be blaming themselves. “Oh, I shouldn’t have taken that last raise! I’m not really worth two dollars AND FIFTY CENTS a day! That nice Mr. Owner had to cut short his East Asian Sex Tour just to outsource my job overseas because of my selfishness! Boo hoo!”

    To all those who keep insisting, in the face of statistics like “5 to 6 unemployed for every available job,” or “we had 100 applicants for every open position,” that all unemployed people are just lazy sponges, to hell with you!

    Should my fifty-something wife, who has two college degrees and worked in offices for thirty years helping families buy homes they could afford, instead get a job as a ladle operator at a hot steel forge? Or learn to be a bricklayer? Hot tar roofer? Lumberjack?

    I never really thought I’d live long enough to see our country come to this. I never thought I’d ever say this, but I miss the Soviet Union. The Communist Threat kept our ruling classes honest — we had to show the world that Capitalism was better, so it _was_ better for most of us. Now, there’s no threat — they can just take whatever they want, and they want it all, Brother, they want it ALL!

    BRING BACK THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNIST CONSPIRACY!!!

  12. Uncle Patso says:

    What really bothers me about the lickspittle, toady, Quisling modern Republicans is that they don’t seem to realize they’re being chivvied — they have no chance to become part of the actual ruling elite of this country! Today, if you’re not worth $250 million to $1 Billion, you’re not part of the elite, YOU’RE THE HELP!

  13. Two to the Head says:

    My neighbor is long term unemployed. (Almost 2 years) His home is paid for, he paid off his car with savings. He gets free medical from the VA. His unemployment check gives him enough money to buy gas for his car and eat out 1 or 2 times a day at cheap restaurants, pay his dish tv bill and buy a “burner” cell phone once a year. Life is good!

    Until the unemployment runs out. Then he will really have to look for a job.

    He made $15 an hour at his old job. If he finds one for $10 an hour he’ll be lucky. Probably more like $8.50.

  14. Dallas says:

    #44. You are so right. It is exactly the haiti-fication of America. I’ve been there , 1% of the people own 90% of the country.

    Last year, ( a bad year) the top 8 hedge fund managers I believe earned 1 billion dollars – each. There is something wrong with this picture. Sure, I’ll buy the story that it’s capitalsm in true glory but I ask the conservative sheep to take their head out of there ass for a moment to ponder how this scenario on a large scale might be bad for our society.
    Merely examine the ramifications in social conflict when the gap widens between the have it alls and the have none with nothing in between.

    Surely you might want to question your sheepherders, no?

  15. deowll says:

    Present government polices are designed to put people on the dole without any way off that I can see.

    The people running this nation now and many of the people posting here are much more concerned about some company or person being “too” profitable or making too much money and redistributing the wealth than setting up the rules so business can be profitable and people can accumulate wealth.

    That being the case it’s just a matter of time before they run out of other people’s money to spend. You can always blow it faster than you make it and if you pull to much money out of the private sector and knock things out of kilter by letting the government decide which companies are allowed to prosper even if they are subsidized then the economic base withers away.

    Once prosperity is gone there is no guarantee a nation will get it back. Dallas and such would claim they know how to do it but it is also clear that the policies they support weren’t around when we were prosperous.

  16. GF says:

    # 10 Dallas …and Democratic fundraiser George Soros is the shinning beacon of a buy American anti-globalist. 😉

  17. Grandpa says:

    Dude, those jobs don’t have to be “permanently” overseas. Just a tweak or two to the tax laws will take care of it. But OH MY, we’re not supposed to be smart enough to figure that out.

    PS: We don’t have to accept illegal aliens or speak their language either.

    These things happen because we are sitting on our hands voting Dem or Repub. We must have a third party. The “American Party” sounds about right to me. A party that believes in protecting our borders and our jobs.

  18. MikeN says:

    The answer is yes, if you don’t reenact the welfare reform that Obama repealed in his stimulus package.

  19. ECA says:

    $51..
    Good comment..
    Lets add 1..
    WHAT OTHER NATION, in the world, that is democratic, has only 2 parties?

  20. Chris Mac says:

    Funny you should ask, when the party is over.

  21. JMJahn says:

    No one has the *right answer*. However if no one tries to address the problems in a compassionate way, then all is lost except for those that can take care of themselves (about 2% of the population).
    When the top leaders (corps and gov) of a country are only driven by self interest the end is near.
    You can’t eat speeches, or live in tax write-offs.
    Those below a certain income level are in deep trouble at the moment with no bright future in front of them. It’s time to end the myth of the American Dream and start to work from reality. Making a viable way forward for all, not just the lucky or the well educated drone. Stop both parties from spouting crap, and get to work fixing the problems of this nation, or get out of the way for those that will do something. Either way this is a real opportunity to get things on a fair path to the future in the US. Stop being afraid of working together. The enemy of America is not Dems or Rep, it is greed to the point of killing the nation for your own self interest. You don’t have to be a do-gooder, you just have to work towards a just society everyday. Turn the majority into thoughtful citizens and not haters.
    It’s very easy to scare people into placing you in power, it’s much harder to really make a difference in the world.

  22. GreatAmerican says:

    Stories like this remind me of “You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

    It’s no panacea for now but I wish three things would happen:

    1. Terrible legislation like Sarbanes-Oxley should be repealed. This (mis)act does more to hinder new business investment and development like no other. This means no new jobs.

    2. The corporatists who work in government should get off the back of small business. Small business employees (or once employed) 70% of workers.

    3. Our leaders should act in OUR best interests when negotiating Most Favored Nation status with other nations…and regarding trade in general. Once upon a time we were a manufacturing powerhouse and many of those who are unemployed AND underemployed (yes, there’s a difference) could have a decent job and a decent wage.

    …I step off my soapbox but still hope for a stronger and better country.

  23. JMJahn says:

    I agree with #55, and I hate to compare countries
    However I will. I left the US 30years ago and live in Denmark. Let me post wiki stuff about Denmark.
    But first let me state that the US HAS to get off this lower taxes crap………..you don’t know what taxes are….so:
    (guess what, even with high taxes life is just fine) ((free health care helps))

    Denmark’s mixed economy features above average European living standards[63][64] and high amount of free trade. Denmark ranks 16th in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) per capita and ranks 5th in nominal GDP per capita.

    According to World Bank Group, Denmark has the most flexible labour market in Europe; the policy is called flexicurity. It is easy to hire, fire and find a job. Denmark has a labour force of about 2.9 million. Denmark has the fourth highest ratio of tertiary degree holders in the world.[65] GDP per hour worked was the 13th highest in 2009. Denmark has the world’s lowest level of income inequality, according to the UN, and the world’s highest minimum wage, according to the IMF. As of June 2010 the unemployment rate is at 6.6%, which is below the EU average of 9.6%.[66]

    Denmark is one of the most competitive economies in the world according to World Economic Forum 2008 report, IMD and The Economist.[67] According to rankings by OECD, Denmark has the most free financial markets in EU-15 and also one of the most free product markets.

    Denmark has a company tax rate of 25% and a special time limited tax regime for expatriates.[68] The Danish taxation system is both broad based (25% VAT, not including excise, duty and tax) and has the world’s highest income tax.
    150% TAX ON NEW CARS ALSO (not a typO)

  24. JMJahn says:

    The point being that
    1. Denmark has the world’s lowest level of income inequality.

    2. Denmark has the world’s highest income tax.

    all things need to be fine adjusted, and everyday things change here, however the basics stay the same, high taxes, income equality, security with a very tight welfare net if you slip down.

    Of course you can not compare an homogeneous society like Denmark to a diverse one like the US, BUT there is a relationship between TAXES and quality of life that is being ignored in the US.

    BTW, there is a thriving black market for services in Denmark which is virtually ignored (carpenters, electricians, food service etc.) because that’s the way to let the people *cheat* on their taxes and feel good 🙂

    The longer that the US worships inequality in wealth the further down the rabbit hole it will go, until it becomes a full fledged oligarchy. good luck with that.

  25. srgothard says:

    There is a lot of confusion here. Government can’t cut taxes on the poor, because the poor don’t pay taxes. 96.54% of taxes are paid by the top 50% of taxpayers. The top 5% of wage earners pay 54.36% of the taxes. The top 1% pay more taxes than the bottom 50%. (source below.)

    Also, the poor do not create jobs, start businesses, buy expensive items, etc. How many of you have been employed long-term by someone who makes less than $200k? If you want more jobs, cut government handouts so we can cut taxes for our employers and customers. The rich will do fine either way. They can always afford basic things. We want them to have enough to afford much more: new workers, business acquisitions, charity works, investments, etc. The poor don’t improve the economy; the rich do.

    http://wurl.us/w6UN

  26. JMJahn says:

    The poor ? The middle class and working class
    are bleeding stones in this economy and you are talking about the poor ? The poor are not even in this. Same old argument, don’t tax anyone then. Id give the US about 3 months to down.
    BTW why not close one or two of the 737 US Military Bases outside the US ? more than 2,500,000 U.S. personnel serving.
    oh I know, the corps and oil need protection and you
    poor ta payer must look the other way and blame some wino for not working, that’s where all the trouble is (sarcasm)

  27. Dallas says:

    #48 Good point GF.

    However, when taking your head out of your ass to examine your surroundings, it’s more informative to inspect the forest and not a tree.

  28. Benjamin says:

    So where are the jobs, President Obama? You had over a year and a half to fix things. Start fixing the economy instead of making it worse.

  29. gp1477 says:

    My girlfriend graduated from a prestigious college with a degree in chemical engineering. Good grades, willing to work. That was over a year and 3 months ago. No job offer, even at half the salary she was promised to command upon entering school. Everyday i see her pain and self loathing at the prospect that she will never get a job even remotely in the field she dropped over 150k on.

  30. JMJahn says:

    #62
    sorry to hear that
    Greed and speculation crashed this economy and sold the near future of our youth. Maybe, like the Great Depression a new generation of thinking citizens will change things……….. then again maybe not. Greed is a powerful thing, reasonable and honorable living is an acquired taste.


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