U.S. Job Creation crawls above break-even with population growth … Jobs lost in Great Recession not likely to return any time soon

Captain Rick: U.S. Job Growth has crawled upward to pass the break-even rate with with population growth. The trend is in the right direction. The jobs being added are mostly low wage. There is little hope of regaining the 8.7 million medium to high wage jobs lost during the Great Recession any time soon.

The chart below shows the new jobs added during each month of the the past year. 

GREEN LINE: an average of 214,000 new jobs have been created each month during the past year

BLUE LINE: an average of 185,000 new jobs need to be created each month to keep up with U.S. Population growth of 0.7%

REAL JOB GROWTH: is represented by the difference between the Green and Blue lines … 29,000 new jobs each month that exceed population growth.

How long will it take to recover the 8.7 million jobs lost during the Great Recession: At the ‘Real Job Growth Rate’ of 29,000 new jobs per month, it will require 300 months … or 25 years. That is a long time, during which many other significant concerns will come into play … like the U.S. Debt crisis … on track to explode during the next decade.

Wages remain stagnated: Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has said she wants to see wages rise faster than inflation so American households will have more buying power. That has yet to happen. I personally think Janet and the entire Fed are living in a ‘dream cloud’.

New poll show majority rating the U.S. economy as ‘Poor’: Many Americans still think the economy is not fully recovered. According to the results of a CNN/ORC International poll released Friday, 41% of people surveyed rate the economy as "good", while 58% rate the economy as "poor."

Perceptions about the U.S. economy will be a key factor in November’s midterm elections: More than a third of the Senate and the entire House are up for grabs. Both sides of the aisle are blaming each other for holding back the recovery. I blame almost all of them. I hope the American voters will exercise their thoughts and register their voices in the upcoming elections and vote out of office the majority of those now in office.

Captain Rick’s Prognosis: America is traveling into uncharted territory, which if not handled properly by the U.S. Congress (which is very unlikely, based on performance in the past decade), has the potential to drive America over the pending ‘real fiscal cliff’ and reduce America to a ‘third world nation’.

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U.S. Job Creation stalled below break-even with population growth … Jobs lost in Great Recession will never return

Captain Rick: U.S. Job Growth is not keeping up with population growth. The 8.7 million jobs lost during the Great Recession will never return. Despite the ‘glory employment talk’ presented by the Obama Administration, America’s job situation qualifies among the worst since the Great Depression. I present the simple math to expose a monumental economic problem developing that will help deliver America to the edge of the pending ‘real fiscal cliff’.

BLUE LINE: 185,000 jobs need to be created each year to keep up with U.S. Population growth of 0.7%

RED LINE: 177,000 jobs represents the average number of jobs created during the past year. This demonstrates a negative pattern that is not keeping up with population growth.

Great Recession Job Losses are Gone Forever

8.7 million jobs were lost during the Great Recession of the late 2000s. It has been stated that 8 million of those have been restored. Simple math proves this to be incorrect. In actuality, none of those jobs have been restored when considering the jobs needed to be added each year to keep pace with population growth. America is running a significant job deficit.

Captain Rick’s Job Numbers Math

317,725,000 U.S Population

0.7% growth rate (*.007)

2,224,075 people enter job market every year

/12

185,340 people enter job market every month

*12 months *5 years

11,120,375 jobs needed to be added in past 5 years since prior to great recession to keep up with population growth

-8.7 Million jobs lost

+8 Million jobs regained

.7 Million jobs still needed to be recovered

+11.1 Million jobs needed to be added to keep up with population growth

11.8 Million jobs short since prior to the Great recession 5 years ago.

At the current pace of job growth, which is not keeping up with population growth, the jobs lost during the ‘Great Recession’ will never be regained.

Where the new jobs were created

The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs last month

Construction added 15,000 jobs, restaurants and bars added 20,100 jobs and education and health services added 33,000 jobs.

By far, the strongest hiring came from professional and business services industries, which include accountants, architects and technology workers. This sector alone added 79,000 jobs last month.

Wages are up: Average earnings ticked up 9 cents, to $24.31 an hour in February. It was the largest monthly wage gain in more than two years.

Long-term unemployment and underemployment remain high

Long-term unemployment remains high. As of February, 3.8 million Americans were unemployed for six months or more.

The underemployment rate — technically known as the U-6 — was 12.6%. That includes the unemployed, plus part-time workers who want to work full time, and people who want a job but haven’t searched for one in the last four weeks.

Labor Participation is lowest since 1978

Labor participation lowest since 1978; just over 63% of the population is engaged in the workforce, driven partly by Baby Boomers retiring, but also by workers who had simply given up hope after long and fruitless job searches. It means that a smaller chunk of the population is paying for promised entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare. If a smaller share of the country is working, it will also act as a drag on economic growth.

What does this Employment data mean concerning the future of America?

America is stuck in a land of anemic growth…actually declining in real growth because its economy can not consistently produce enough jobs to keep pace with America’s 0.7% population growth. In reality, this means that America is declining in economic strength. In the coming few years America faces an astronomical increase in expenditures due to entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare and welfare programs like Medicaid and Obamacare. America’s relatively level revenue will not be able to cover the mushrooming expenditures. Congress will not be able to address this problem by simply ‘kicking the debt can down the road’ as it has in recent years. At some point soon, the fiscal mess that is brewing will explode as America plunges over the pending ‘real fiscal cliff’.  At the bottom lies America as a third world country.

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U.S. Hiring plummets … Unemployment drops because 1/2 million gave up job hunt … Participation rates reach record lows

Captain Rick: U.S. Hiring plummeted in March to 88,000, its lowest level since last June. Unemployment ticked down 0.1% to 7.6% for the wrong reason…because 500,000 people dropped out of the labor market. This is my personal report that skips all of the hype and gets right to the facts. It’s a report you can believe.

Hiring plummets to 88,000

March hiring plummeted to 1/3 that of February and 1/2 of the number of a year ago.

Private Sector: 95,000 jobs added, mostly in professional and business services and healthcare. Growth was dragged down by the retail sector, which lost 24,000 jobs. The drop in retail was particularly disappointing, considering that the sector had averaged an increase of 32,000 jobs a month for the past six months. Construction jobs added 18,000 jobs in March.

Public Sector: 7,000 jobs lost. The U.S. Postal Service shed 12,000 positions, but were offset by other gains. This sector is continuing to be an overall strain on job creation. While the impact of the forced federal budget cuts, which began March 1, was a concern, it doesn’t appear to have directly affected the March payroll figures much. The federal government, excluding the U.S. Postal Service, shed only 2,200 positions.

The red line in the chart above represents the 150,000 jobs that need to be created each month to keep up with population growth.  The average over the past 12 months is 159,000 jobs added per month…only 9,000 positive gain over the number needed to keep up with population growth. Overall, the U.S. economy lost 8.8 million jobs during the Great Recession, and is still down about 3.2 million jobs from the labor market’s height in January 2008. At the current pace of a positive gain of 9000 jobs per month, 30 years would be required to restore the lost jobs.

In the Labor Department’s survey, 206,000 fewer people said they had a job than in the previous month, even though a separate survey of employers in the March jobs report showed 88,000 jobs were added.

In addition, 290,000 fewer people were counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work. That drop in those seeking jobs was the reason the unemployment rate fell to 7.6%, the lowest since December 2008.

Unemployment Rate drops to 7.6%

The March reading was a .1 decline, but it is not good news because nearly 500,000 people dropped out of the labor market. 11.7 million people are receiving unemployment benefits.

Economists believe the rate will fall to 6.7% by the end of 2014. That would put it close to the 6.5% level that the Federal Reserve has said it wants to see before considering raising interest rates. Some of the anticipated drop will result from baby boomers retiring. If unemployed people continue giving up on finding a job at the rate experienced during March, the unemployment rate could drop even faster. Unfortunately the young looking for their first job are not figured into the unemployment rate because they do not yet qualify for unemployment compensation yet. All of this makes the unemployment figure really ambiguous…almost meaningless.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows there are 3.9 million workers who should be in the labor force but are not because of the weakness in the job market. Counting them as unemployed would take the unemployment rate up to 9.8%.

Underemployment Rate drops to 13.8%

The underemployment rate, a more meaningful term, includes persons marginally attached to the labor force such as part time workers seeking full time employment and “over qualified” workers working in jobs below their caliber.

U.S Labor Force Participation Rate fell to 63.3%

The March reading is the lowest level since May 1979 when women were less likely to be working. For men age 25 and older, March was the lowest participation on record. The participation rate for those age 16 to 24 was near a 50-year low. The participation rate of “prime-age” workers, age 25 to 54, also fell to match the lowest reading since 1984.

Generally, this consists of everyone of working age (around 16), who are participating workers, that is people actively employed (either part-time or full-time) or people actively seeking employment. In the U.S., not maximum age is considered.
People not counted include people who are not employed and not seeking employment including students, retired people, stay-at-home parents, people who do not report income (tax evaders) and people in prisons or similar institutions.
Discouraged workers who want to work, but cannot find work and have thus stopped looking for work for at least a month are not included in the labor force in the United States.

Some of the downward trend in the participation rate in recent years is due to more baby boomers reaching retirement age, along with the longer life span of those who are retired. The greater the percentage of the population that is retired, the lower the participation rate.
The difficulty for younger workers finding jobs is also a factor, as more young adults unable to find work return to school to try to improve their prospects.

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Previous reports:

Jobs: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/jobs/

Unemployment: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/unemployment/

U.S. Jobs: Stuck in neutral … with little hope things will pick up any time soon … unless…

Captain Rick: The January Jobs Report shows a continuing drop in new jobs created and a reality that job creation in America is stuck in neutral … or possibly reverse. 150,000 new jobs are needed to be created every month just to keep pace with population growth as represented by my red line in the chart below. Overall, the U.S. economy lost 8.8 million jobs during the Great Recession, and is still down about 3.2 million jobs from the labor market’s height in January 2008. The 5.6 million jobs that were created since the Great Recession also had to provide for the 9 million new job seekers entering the market since January 2008, due to population growth. Realistically, another 8.8 million jobs would have been needed to be added during the past few years to equal the American job scene of January 2008. At the current pace, those jobs will not be returning any time soon. Making things even worse is the fact that many of the jobs being added are relatively low paying in comparison to the jobs that were lost.

The U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs in January. That’s slower growth than in December, when employers hired 196,000 workers. Some call it “Groundhog Day in the labor market” and say “We’ve been waking up to this same story for four years.”

The biggest job sector gainers
In January, businesses added 166,000 jobs while federal, state and local governments cut 9,000. The government continued to cut jobs for the fourth month in a row.

Retail added 33,000 jobs, with about a third of those gains at clothing stores.

Construction firms added 28,000 jobs, reflecting a stronger housing market and rebuilding efforts after Superstorm Sandy.

Health care added 23,000 jobs. Most of those jobs were in ambulatory health care services, a category that includes doctors’ offices and outpatient care centers.

Manufacturers added only 4,000 jobs. The Labor Department noted that employment in this sector has changed little since July. Manufacturing once was the job sector that built and sustained America as a great country. America’s manufacturing jobs have mostly been lost to places like China because of lower wages and NO unions!

Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate increased to 7.9% in January, as 12.3 million people were counted as unemployed.
The number of jobless Americans out of work at least six months was roughly unchanged at 4.7 million and that group represents only 38% of the unemployed.

A broader measure of the job market’s health called the underemployment rate — it includes the unemployed, discouraged Americans who have stopped looking for work and part-time workers who want full-time jobs — was unchanged last month at 14.4%.

Outlook for 2013 and beyond
Economists are expecting job growth to remain stalled during 2013.  Political uncertainty that is still hanging over employers, as they wait for Congress to hash out a budget deal. Amid an impasse between Democrats and Republicans, chances are growing that automatic spending cuts, which aim to reduce deficits by $1.2 trillion over a decade, could take effect starting in March. All of this will likely have significant negative impact on the job scene.

The best hope we have of seeing an improving job scene in the next few years is for the U.S. Congress to pass legislation to permanently solve the U.S. Debt Crisis, including working towards balancing the budget. Our nation can not continue living on deficit spending … money it does not have. That is a recipe for eventual total economic failure. While it’s continuing practice of ‘kicking the can down the road’ might prevent further erosion of jobs short term, it will most assuredly will set our nation up for a much larger recession and loss of jobs in a few years.

View prior reports on Jobs: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/jobs/

U.S. Economy: GDP Stalled at ‘break-even’

Captain Rick: Gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of the nation’s economic health, grew at an annual rate of 3.1% from July to September (Q3). That’s more than double the sluggish 1.3% rate in the second quarter, however it only measures even with the break-even line. 3% economic growth, represented by the red line in the chart below, is necessary to provide enough jobs and wages to keep pace with U.S. population growth. America has fallen short of the line in all but three quarters during the past four years. A GDP growth rate of 5% for 4 quarters is required to reduce the unemployment rate by 1%.

Consumer spending, which typically accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, was the single largest driver of economic growth between July and September. U.S. households bought more motor vehicles and health care services, leading consumer spending to rise at a 1.6% annual rate in the quarter.

Government defense spending was another large driver, rising 12.9% in the third quarter. And home sales picked up, also contributing to economic growth.

Meanwhile, businesses built up their stockpile of goods and were hesitant to make new investments. Business spending contracted at a 1.8% annual rate in the quarter, dragging on overall economic growth. The largest cuts in business spending were on equipment and software.

Economists point to uncertainty about 2013 taxes and government spending cuts as the culprit that’s weighing on business investment decisions. The uncertainty generated by fiscal ineptitude has basically shut down investment spending. 

Economic Outlook: Overall, economic recovery remains sluggish. On average, the U.S. economy has grown about 2% a year for the last three years. Essentially this means the economy has actually going backwards at a rate of about 1%. Major portions of the fiscal cliff remain unresolved. The fiscal cliff and the pending debt ceiling will have to be addressed by about March 1 to prevent government default. The manner in which they are addressed will play a role in whether America dips into another recession next year.

Wall Street terminates 18,000 jobs: Citigroup: 11,000 … American Express: 5,400 Morgan Stanley: 1,600

Captain Rick: The Wall Street ‘chopping block’ has been in ‘full swing’ as large financial corporations cut 18 thousand jobs in recent weeks. Its more of the same story that is sweeping our world as businesses strive to ‘shore up’ their ‘bottom line’ in an economy that is as fragile as ‘thin ice’. 

Citigroup announced it will cut 11,000 jobs as part of plan to trim costs. Citigroup has already begun making the layoffs, but expects them to continue throughout 2013. Layoffs are nothing new at Citi. Since November 2008, the bank has slashed about 25% of its staff. The 11,000 job cuts that were announced Wednesday amount to 4% of Citigroup’s current workforce, which stood at 261,000 full-time employees at the end of September.

American Express announced Thursday that it was cutting 5,400 jobs, becoming the latest large financial firm to reduce its headcount. American Express said it expects to see its current work force of 63,500 reduced by between 4% and 6% by the end of the year.

Morgan Stanley is expected to cut 6% of its workforce (1,600 jobs) in the coming weeks, due to "market conditions." Morgan Stanley, which currently employs nearly 58,000, has been trimming its workforce over the past couple of years. With this round of cuts, Morgan Stanley’s total headcount will have been reduce by 10% since September 2011, to roughly 56,000.

Eurozone Unemployment hits another record high

Captain Rick: Eurostat data published Tuesday showed unemployment in the 17-nation Eurozone hit a record high of 11.8% in November, leaving 18.8 million people without work – two million more than a year ago.
At nearly 27%, Spain has the highest unemployment rate in the European Union, and youth unemployment is more than twice as high at 56%. Thousands of Spanish bank employees will lose their jobs as a result of an EU-backed bailout of Spanish banks. Only Greece, which is facing a sixth year of recession, has a greater proportion of young people out of work.

The Eurozone economy shrank in the second and third quarters of 2012, and official data due next month are expected to confirm a contraction in fourth quarter output.

Forecasts for 2013 are not much better, ranging from stagnation to another year of recession as governments continue to grapple with the fallout of the credit crisis, cutting spending and raising taxes to rein in budget deficits.

Hopes that stronger growth in Asia and the U.S. could spark a Eurozone recovery also took a knock, as Germany said its exports fell 3.4% in November, from the previous month, and were flat year over year.

View other reports about Europe: https://atridim.wordpress.com/category/europe/

U.S. Jobs: Stalled . . . 5 Million discouraged Workers hopelessly Unemployed

Captain Rick: The December Jobs Report marked the tenth month in a row of lackluster job creation. Only 155,000 jobs added, just above the red break-even line of enough jobs to keep pace with population growth. That leaves 4.8 million discouraged workers … hopelessly unemployed.

1.84 million jobs were created during 2012. That sounds huge, but it only broke even with the 1.8 million needed to keep pace with population growth.

U.S. Unemployment rate is inept and meaningless … the real unemployment rate is about 15%

I no longer report on the U.S. Labor Department unemployment percentage, which basically counts only those who are registered and receiving unemployment compensation. It does not include the other half of the workers that dropped off of the government’s ‘radar screen’ … the 4.8 million who have exhausted their unemployment compensation and remain discouraged and hopelessly unemployed. The Labor Department should abandon the ‘unemployment rate’ and replace it with a figure that is closer to reality. The actual unemployment rate, sometimes called the ‘underemployment rate’, stands at about 15%, among the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The growing number of hopelessly unemployed is worrisome

Studies widely show the longer a person is unemployed, the weaker his or her chances are of getting a job. At some point, long-term unemployment can lead workers to become permanently detached from the labor force. That’s not good for the economy.

How long will it take to reduce unemployment to pre recession levels?

The Hamilton Project, an economic research arm of the Brookings Institution, publishes a “jobs gap” calculator that estimates just how long it will take to get back to pre recession levels, assuming the only major job market dropouts are Baby Boomers who are retiring. At the current rate of hiring, the Hamilton Project estimates it would take until 2025 to get back to a pre-recession job market. I must caution … that report does not consider the monumental fiscal challenge America faces with the upcoming Fiscal Cliff Sequester and Debt Ceiling issue. If President Obama and the U.S. Legislature continue to ‘kick the fiscal can down the road’, it could be far beyond 2025 before America recovers to pre recession unemployment levels, possibly never.

Caution for U.S. State Governors and City Managers

If you think America is on the road to recovery … THINK AGAIN !!! America is on a very serious fiscal downhill slide …headed for the ultimate ‘Fiscal Cliff’. Continue to spend money like there is ‘no tomorrow’ or prepare for coming reality by shoring up fiscal defenses.

Get Educated about the serious fiscal problems facing America … and the world

A great source: Captain Rick’s Fiscal Cliff Course 101 … The course starts at the very bottom.

Michigan becomes 24th “right-to-work” state … new law weakens unions’ power

Captain Rick: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation Tuesday that now allows workers at union-represented employers to forgo paying dues. Michigan, the birthplace of the United Auto Workers where 17.5% of employees are represented by unions, is by far the most heavily unionized state to pass “right-to-work” legislation. This has the potential of starting a move to crack the union “job-killing” stronghold in the American northeast.

I chose the short video above as the best of many to give you a quick overview of this monumental legislation.

What is a right-to-work law?
A right-to-work law is a statute in the United States of America that prohibits union security agreements, or agreements between labor unions and employers that govern the extent to which an established union can require employees’ membership, payment of union dues, or fees as a condition of employment, either before or after hiring. Such laws are allowed under the 1947 federal Taft–Hartley Act. Before then, an employee who ceased being a member of the union for whatever reason, from failure to pay dues to expulsion from the union as an internal disciplinary punishment, could also be fired even if the employee did not violate any of the employer’s rules.

What is the benefit of a right-to-work law?

Right-to-work states have done better in terms of growing jobs, according to State Budget Solutions, an advocacy group that supported the measure. Right-to-work states saw employment expand by 8.2% between 2001 and 2010, while those without the law experienced a 0.5% decrease, according to the group’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics figures.

Which states have a right-to-work law?
Right-to-work laws now exist in twenty-four U.S. states as shown in the map below. In my humble opinion, they are the 24 states which are leading America out of the past doldrums of “shipping” millions of well-paying American jobs to China, Mexico and may other foreign countries because of the endless greed of American labor unions for more power and wealth. I am proud of my state of Arizona for being a “right-to-work” pioneer and leader. Arizona was the first state to pass “right-to-work” legislation way back on November 22, 1948. Arizona has since enjoyed the company of 23 other states who have a desire to do what is best to grow jobs at home in America.

Captain Rick’s closing thoughts

Nationwide, union membership stands at 11.8% and is decreasing daily. That is good. I look forward to the day when it reaches zero. There was a day nearly a century ago that unions played an important role in protecting the safety and well being of American jobs. After World War II, unions became nothing more than a money-making scheme for a few to get rich at the expense of many. During the latter half of the last century America has witnessed the destruction of much of America’s manufacturing base along with the end of millions of well paying jobs that were sent overseas because they could be done at less cost. I hold American unions mostly to blame for this travesty. American unions are running out of “suckers” so they are relentlessly perusing the only remaining frontier for their financial greed … service jobs in the government sector which consists mainly of teachers, police, fire and other civic employees. The union thought is that these jobs can not escape America, so they have free reign. I hope our elected civic servants will be wise to this ploy and help prevent one of the last American job frontiers from destruction.

Wal-Mart workers plan Black Friday Strike Captain Rick to Wal-Mart: Fire all of them! Unions are destroying America!

Captain Rick: Wal-Mart, the world’s largest store, with 1.3 million workers, fights back as workers are preparing for a Black Friday walkout. Wal-Mart has filed a complaint with a federal agency accusing one of America’s largest labor unions of unlawfully organizing picket lines, in-store “flash mobs” and other demonstrations. Unions and union backed groups are calling for America’s largest employer to end what they call retaliation against employees who speak out for better pay, fair schedules and affordable health care.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said: Black Friday is the “Superbowl” for retailers and that Wal-Mart is ready. If employees are scheduled for work, we expect them to show up and do their job. If the don’t, there could be consequences. While Wal-Mart respects its workers federally-protected right to express concerns, it will act to protect its stores and customers from illegal and unprotected conduct that threatens the safety of our business operations… such as protestors trespassing on Wal-Mart grounds and interfering with business.

OURWalmart, one of the main union groups says it has 1000 events planned this week. It has a Facebook page with 28,000 likes and  YouTube video with over 103,000 views. I have viewed both and do not find them worthy to pass on.

Captain Rick’s thoughts: I feel for those who work for Wal-Mart and don’t feel they make enough money or receive enough medical benefits. Keep in mind, you always have the option to find employment somewhere else. Where? Wal-Mart or no other company has an obligation to better yourself. Only you can do that. Stop whining and take control of your own destiny. Don’t rely on the unions and associated groups to save you. They have only one goal in mind… to make themselves rich… and destroy America as a by product. History shows that unions have played a huge role in the destruction of entire American industries. They are directly responsible for the execution of thousands of high paying jobs in America…jobs that are now being fulfilled overseas at much lower costs. The only sector that the unions have not killed in America is the service sector…jobs like those in retail sales…like Wal-Mart. With stupid efforts like this, it wont be long before unions destroy it too.

Another example is civic government. This is perhaps the worst of all sectors for unions to attack and kill…it’s the last American stronghold, one that is protected by our ‘warped’ government laws. In the private sector, unions can cause companies to fail. In the public sector, failure is not possible…so unions have free rain to pillage them to an endless extreme with the total cost transferred to the tax payer. America’s laws are reckless in this regard and are in serious need of change…hopefully before the unions are finally allowed to totally destroy America.

Unions kill another American Classic: Hostess, maker of Twinkies & Wonder Bread: Bankrupt … 18,500 workers lose their jobs

Captain Rick: Once upon a time in America, unions were an entity to protect job safety, like having clean air to breath and working with equipment that doesn’t maim or kill. In recent decades unions have become mostly about a means to push member benefits and wages as high as possible … historically, beyond justifiable means … at the expense of the consumer and their employer. All too many times we have witnessed massive job losses as the result of union greed. Detroit, once automotive headquarters and union central, is America’s greatest example. The city is all but dead, killed by the unions and their thirst for endless, unwarranted greed.

Hostess gave the unions a 5 PM deadline Thursday, November 15 to return to work. The workers did not return. As a result, the union workers killed Hostess, with annual sales of $2.5 billion. 18,500 workers have lost their jobs. 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers and 570 outlet stores have closed across America. Annual sale of 500 million Twinkies and 127 million loaves of Wonder Bread also end. It’s the end of another American classic.

Hostess will move in bankruptcy court to sell its assets to the highest bidder. I trust the Twinkie and Wonder Bread will live on … but will be produced by companies  of dedicated workers who are not unionized … workers who understand the true value of their jobs … not some super hyped imagination of job glory that does not exist in today’s America. Thus, the companies might not be headquartered in America. Its time for all unions to exit America or America will continue to watch our great companies be washed to the sea.

Eurozone: Record high unemployment: 11.6%Spain and Greece are worst, both above 25%

Captain Rick: Unemployment in the 17 country Eurozone hit a record high in September of 11.6%, up 1.2% from a year ago. The sluggish economies of Spain, Greece and Portugal lead the pack with unemployment rates above 25%.  Portugal is at 15.7%. Austria has the lowest rate of 5.2%, followed by Germany and the Netherlands at 5.4%.

The unemployment rate for the entire 27 member-states of the European Union, including countries that do not use the Euro, was unchanged at 10.6%, up from 9.8% a year ago. The total number of of unemployed people in this area rose by 169.000 to 25.75 million.

U.S. October 2012 Jobs Report: . . . . . . . . . . . Hiring and Unemployment up slightly + Captain Rick’s Mathematical Jobs Analysis

Captain Rick: Hiring ticked up to 171,000 new jobs in October … along with the unemployment rate, up .1% to 7.9%. The biggest job sector gainers were business services at 51,000 positions. Health care added 31,000, construction 17,000. Caution…many of the jobs added were low-paying service jobs.

Captain Rick’s REAL Mathematical Jobs Analysis:

At least 150,000 jobs need to be created each month (1,800,000 per year) to keep pace with the growing population, as represented by my red line in the chart above.

In the past 12 months, beginning November 2011, America has added 1,950,000 new jobs. Subtracting the needed addition of 1,800,000 to keep pace with population growth, America added just 125,000 REAL jobs in the last year. That represents a move in the positive direction, but is far short of what is needed to regain the nearly 9 million jobs lost during the Great U.S. Recession in 2008-2009. At the pace American jobs have been restored during the past year, America will not experience a return to pre-recession job conditions for decades, if ever. Many economists share my feeling that what we are seeing now is the new job norm. The great job conditions of the mid 2000s will not be returning … possibly ever.

The U.S. Fiscal Cliff: This is the most important fiscal challenge facing America … perhaps the most monumental in U.S. history. How our legislators manage this crisis will determine America’s Jobs outlook and fiscal status for years to come. If not handled properly, our legislators are in position to reduce America to a third world country during the coming years. This is very serious ‘stuff’. I will do my best to keep you informed. Read my report on the Fiscal Cliff: https://atridim.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/fiscal-cliff-what-the-heck-is-it-how-will-it-affect-us/

DuPont to cut 1,500 jobs worldwide, 2% of its workforce … signaling another blow to the global economy

Captain Rick: DuPont, one of the world’s largest chemical companies that invented Nylon, Neoprene, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kevlar, Freon and much more issued a wake up call to the world today as it announced a cut of 1,500 jobs worldwide, about 2% of its global workforce. It also lowered earnings guidance for this year.

DuPont, headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, had 70,000 employees worldwide at the end of last year. A component of the Dow Jones, DuPont’s stock fell 9% today, helping send the Dow into a nose dive today, loosing nearly 2% of its value.

Cummins to cut 1,500 jobs by end of 2012 due to weakening global economy

Captain Rick: Cummins, the world’s largest producer of diesel technology with $1.85 billion in 2011 sales,  announced that it will cut as many as 1,500 jobs by the end of 2012 because of uncertainty regarding the direction of the global economy. Cummins employs about 44,000 people worldwide. Based in Indiana, it also has factories in Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina and several overseas. It instituted a global hiring freeze after a recent drop in sales in North America, China and Brazil.