The Hidden Unemployed

This from the New York Times.

“The number of Americans who have seen their full-time jobs chopped to part time because of weak business has swelled to more than 3.7 million — the largest figure since the government began tracking such data more than half a century ago.

 

 

The loss of pay has become a primary source of pain for millions of American families, reinforcing the downturn gripping the economy. Paychecks are shrinking just as home prices plunge and gas prices soar, furthering the austerity across the nation.

On the surface, the job market is weak but hardly desperate. Layoffs remain less frequent than in many economic downturns, and the unemployment rate is a relatively modest 5.5 percent. But that figure masks the strains of those who are losing hours or working part time because they cannot find full-time work — a stealth force that is eroding American spending power.

 

 

All told, people the government classifies as working part time involuntarily — predominantly those who have lost hours or cannot find full-time work — swelled to 5.3 million last month, a jump of greater than 1 million over the last year.”

That is one million more American Workers who are turning to credit cards to buy food and necessities. The move to cut hours may save Corporate America’s bottom line, but it is devastating to American Families. Most of us can’t afford our health care now, but when you begin making COBRA payments, you really pay. Exxon-Mobile reported the most any American Corporation had ever made, ever, averaging $1500 a second. I am all for a free market, but isn’t there something wrong with this picture? Aren’t the corporations killing the goose that laid the golden egg? In more ways than one. High gas prices caught the American Auto Industry with their pants down, and has all but stalled production of SUV’s and trucks. Just think of where we would be now, if we would of listened to the ineffective Jimmy Carter about foreign oil 30 years ago.  We didn’t have the technology then, but we do now and there is no excuse (except Exxon-Mobile is making record profits). We developed solar technology for NASA, now it is a viable alternative that could provide millions of jobs for hurting American Workers. Greedy and shady lenders have caused the one asset middle America has and that is the equity in their homes to drop. Couple that with skyrocketing cost due to high energy cost and there isn’t enough paycheck to meet the demand of the month. It isn’t just average Americans that are going into debt, but a nation as well. We are now 9 trillion dollars in debt and borrowing more by the second. What happened to fiscal responsibility. I guess that is what you get in a president who has never had a real job before and has always had someone to bail him out.