Washington Wallows In Deliberate Ignorance About The Jobs Crisis
Washington is controlled by the corporatocracy and does its best to maintain a government of, by, and for the wealthy few, the 1%, therefore .the majority of the elected officials of both parties, influenced by the big money that calls the shots, ignore the following facts.
Heidi Shierholz at the Economic Policy Institute writes: "Today’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of job openings increased by 258,000 in December, to 3.4 million. The total number of unemployed workers in December was 13.1 million (unemployment is from the Current Population Survey). Therefore the ratio of unemployed workers to job openings was 3.9-to-1 in December, an improvement from the November ratio of 4.3-to-1.
"To put this figure in context, it’s useful to note that the highest this ratio ever got in the early 2000s downturn was 2.8-to-1, and in December 2000, the month the JOLTS survey began eleven years ago, the ratio was 1.1-to-1. While the job seekers ratio has been slowly improving since its peak of 6.9-to-1 in the summer of 2009, today’s data release marks three years and three months that the ratio has been above 3-to-1. A job seekers ratio of more than 3-to-1 means that for more than two out of every three unemployed workers, there simply are no jobs. In December, there were 9.7 million more unemployed workers than job openings. Furthermore, the lack of job openings is in no way limited to particular industries such as construction—unemployed workers dramatically outnumber job openings across every major industry."
And in another posting Shierholz points out that:
"These days we often hear the claim that one of the reasons hiring remains so low in this recovery is that employers can’t find workers with the education and skills they need. For example, in his State of the Union address last week, President Obama said that he hears from many business leaders who “want to hire in the United States but can’t find workers with the right skills.”
"While there are always changes taking place in any labor market that will create a degree of mismatch between the workers employers need and the workers who are available, the relevant question given the current crisis in the labor market is whether this mismatch is a key part of today’s unemployment. And the answer a resounding no. The unemployed currently far outnumber job openings; even if every job opening were filled immediately, there would still be more than 10 million unemployed workers in this country. Further, if employers’ inability to find suitable workers were a significant part of today’s unemployment problem, you would expect to find labor shortages in some sectors. But there are no major sectors where that is happening—unemployed workers dramatically outnumber job openings across the board, as can be seen here.
"It's thus clear that the main story isn’t that the economy is lacking the right workers, it is instead, across the board, lacking sufficient job openings.....there has been a dramatic drop in demand for workers with even the highest levels of education.
"The low demand for workers across industries and education levels underscores the fact that while job training programs can help specific individuals and communities they are not going to solve our national unemployment crisis. For that we need to boost demand so that employers have a reason to hire. Again, it is not the right workers we are lacking, it is work."
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