Not Working for a Living

Hot Headlines from this weekend:

Breakdown stalls checks to jobless: You know when you're late with your bills how you get charged a late fee? Well, how about a bill proposing states pay a late fee penalty to the unemployed when their checks do not arrive on time?

California will elect anyone to retain jobs: Here is the first of many Op/Ed pieces and stories this weekend linking the California recall to the nation's unemployment problem. It's not that people expect Arnold to bring jobs, but that sitting office holders are in real jeopardy of being defeated come election time unless we see some change.

N.C. jobs tops voter concerns in race for governor: As I was saying ... What happened in California may have only been the spark that ignites the inferno.

Politicians promising jobs that might be gone forever: Should a Democrat unseat Bush, this person will have an incredible task when it comes to job creation. What industries are going to create these jobs and for who? Manufacturing or the tech sector?

Businesses forge alliance to save jobs: This is how you start a recovery. You get businesses seeking to keep jobs in the U.S. with lawmakers willing to risk their political capital to get things done.

Final results from the latest Not Working for a Living weekly poll were:

"How long have you been, or were you, unemployed?"

More than a year 34%
Three to six months 28%
Zero to three months 18%
Nine to twelve months 14%
Six to nine months 6%

This week's poll focuses on what produces the best results when it comes to sending out resumes to prospective employers; email, mail, fax, applying in person or posting your resume online?

I have an opinion on this as it relates to HR staffs, but I will leave that to next week for the results.

Thanks to all of you who voted on last week's poll. I'm sorry to see the leading votes were for people unemployed for more than a year, but I'm also not surprised.

What does the successful California recall and the loss of 500 jobs in the Alabama courts have in common? Both are the partially the result of the federal government pushing more costs off to state governments.

I would say partially in the case of California because Gray Davis and the California political machine really did need a shake-up. However, the 500 or so court employees in Alabama is a direct result of this ongoing push from the White House to lay the expenses of this country at the feet of its governors.

This is not a Bush-bashing session because it has been going on for some time now. The states have joined the fray by pushing costs to county and city governments. The goal here is to not be the one to raise taxes. Meanwhile, government employees and services continue to get cut benefiting ... well, no one.

"Judge Glenn Thompson said three law clerks will lose their jobs."

"The people have spoken," Thompson said of the statewide defeat of Gov. Bob Riley's $1.2 billion tax plan, which resulted in the Legislature's slashing budgets across the board. "This will severely impair the operations of circuit and district court," he said.

This pattern of passing the buck among branches of government is impairing more than just the operations of state offices, it is impairing the lives of thousands of state, county and city workers.

Times continue to get tougher in Alabama as not only does the football team suck, but the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company is saying "Roll Tide" on out the door to 1,100 of its workers just in time for the holidays.

Goodyear is closing its Huntsville plant in December, but "The company says Huntsville workers will be given priority consideration for any jobs at its plant in Gadsden, Alabama."

Not a chance. These people have a better shot at landing a role in Forrest Gump II. My guess is people in the Gadsden plant have a greater chance of losing their jobs than the people of Huntsville have in working for Goodyear again. Given priority, give me a break.

For any of you who are new to this here blog of ours, I would recommend reading this recent story on cnn.com that perfectly summarizes the case made by the three-month existence of this blog.

I'd swear John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a job placement company, has been reading this blog from day one because he recites the same reasons for the gloomy outlook to the unemployment situation despite the most recent jobs report.

In short, as it has been hashed over in greater detail on this blog, the unemployment and hiring situation in the U.S. is still less than adequate because:

1. Less pay for those fortunate enough to be finding employment.
2. More people dependent upon part-time employment as opposed to full-time.
3. Long-term joblessness. See this week's poll.
4. The not-so-optimistic picture still in place for small businesses.

All my work summed up in one story. Humbling, really. But I will soldier on because the more you know about the unemployment crisis, the better able you are to prepare and survive it.

We've got the hot and cold of it today when it comes to unemployment topics and they're both bad news for the jobless.

First the cold as refrigeration company Carrier has announced it is putting the deep freeze to 1,200 manufacturing jobs and shipping them overseas to expanding markets in Asia.

"These decisions reflect, in part, market requirements. The global container market has become Asian-focused, with more than 80 percent of our container refrigeration products currently being shipped to Asia," Amyuni said. "We must be located nearer to our markets."

"Carrier said its container refrigeration business would be handled by its existing manufacturing facility in Singapore."

Expanding overseas markets and cheap labor is a lethal combination here in the U.S. for the unemployed. Indeed, the markets are expanding rapidly overseas as Asia begins joining the rest of the world in 21st Century when it comes to education and technology.

Birth control is another matter entirely.

The heat in today's entry consists of bad news for the unemployed heading into the winter months. Home heating bills look as if they may rise by five percent this coming winter for those using natural gas. Heating oil properties are predicted to see a decrease in their bills, by 8 percent, but heating oil runs higher than natural gas so it's really a wash.

The best bet to beat heating costs, propane, with a cost drop of three percent.

Better yet, burn stuff. It's free.

Speaking of trying to light a fire, John Edwards is taking a stab at trying to garner attention to his slumping campaign. Edwards has a new $100 million plan to overhaul the job-training programs throughout the U.S.

"We need to not only create jobs, but we need these job training and retraining programs to work. This means they need to be integrated in the community where they exist," Edwards said during a round-table discussion with staff and students at New Hampshire Community Technical College's Nashua campus.

Edwards is focusing on the traditional two-year schools, or junior colleges, for these programs. Programs such as this usually work best for people that are currently employed and seeking something else to do with their lives. When you're unemployed and flat broke, a student loan is never enough to get by on. And, that's provided you can qualify for one based on your previous income.

The additional meat to Edwards job plan is tax credits to companies keeping jobs in the U.S.; venture capital funds for economically stripped areas and opportunities for the disabled to find work.

The hole in Edwards plan is that companies are finding greater long term savings in moving jobs overseas than they can find in savings based on tax credits.

Sorry, John, I had to point that out.

Since Edwards has brought up venture capital, I thought I would pass along this story on how those exciting hunks of love, that right ladies, engineers, are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to finding work with vc-funded start-ups.

"EEs, who are counted among the 24,000 workers estimated to have lost their jobs in Austin's high-tech sector during the downturn, are leery and risk-averse. The startups, for their part, are seeking specific skill sets and, as one veteran entrepreneur noted, few companies have been dismissing people with those specialized talents."

I have zero the brain power to analyze the global engineering field, but the line about specific skill sets applies to most everyone.

Jobs today are suffering from a requirements overdose. How often do you see a job ad where the requirements for a job far exceed the description of the job? Education and experience are a given, but the overwhelming number of other requirements for jobs seldom using such skills is amazing.

A large part of the problem is due to companies no longer having an idea of what exactly its employees are doing at a particular position. Companies continue to allow employees to describe the skill set needed for their jobs instead of the company defining it.

Use a particular piece of software once; then the person following you in that same position must be highly proficient at it in order to succeed.

Once someone speaking Spanish rings your extension on accident; then the person following you must be bilingual.

Someone asks you to book a conference room for a meeting they're planning; then the person following you must have experience planning and overseeing large corporate gatherings.

Mind you, these are silly examples I'm pulling from the air, but think back to your present or past job. Imagine all the different things you could have pulled out of the air to describe all the skills and talents necessary to succeed in your position.

If only hiring managers would ever remember that there is still something to be said for just getting the job done right.

Hot Headlines from this weekend:

Jobs growth with a cautious hurrah: Give the St. Pete Times credit for being one of the very few publications willing to acknowledge that one good report does not a job recovery make.

A Missing Statistic: U.S. Jobs That Went Overseas Let's be fair here. Jobs have been going overseas for some time now. It wasn't until it was high paying jobs that many people began to really care. Yes, we still judge people in this country by income levels.

Jobs have crossed point of no return In short, Midwest manufacturing jobs are going away and never coming back. But, so did family farming and no one cared to do much about that either. I would include President Clinton in that mix too.

Ex-Iraqi Soldiers Confront GIs Over Jobs It's nice to hear that the Iraqis are getting their news from more independent sources than ever before. But, if anyone would ever give them some free copies of our newspapers, they would see there's little use in asking anyone from the U.S. for a job.

My week couldn't end any better than knowing that President Bush took credit for today's improved employment figures showing an increase of 57,000 jobs in the last month.

Bush didn't even wait for the ink to dry on the report before he stood out in front a mass of people to take credit and say how this one report, just one, shows how he is now leading the economy back to a recovery.

"Things are getting better," Bush said in an economic speech to a friendly audience of 1,000 small-business leaders. He gave a lengthy defense of his efforts to spur the economy through tax cutting, insisting: "The tax relief we passed was necessary for economic vitality."

But get this, after first taking credit for the numbers, Bush lays down this line.

"My concern is about the people who are looking for work," Bush said. "See, I'm not worried about the numbers; what I am worried about is the lives affected by recession."

Translation: "The numbers are good today, but don't hold me to any tomorrow."

If Bush wants to take credit for this, than it is more than fair game for him to take the blame for the past and any future downturns in the economy. The president doesn't want to play it that way, but it is up to the voters to hold him to that standard.

Will they?

That huge sigh of relief you may have overheard this morning did indeed come from the White House on news that for the first time in eight months, employers added new jobs to the payroll.

This came as a suprise to many and many others would still caution that one successful month does not make for a full economic recovery. In fact, there are still some daunting numbers regarding unemployment from this last month.

"People seeking work are not out of the woods yet, the latest report indicates. The number of jobless people looking for work for 27 weeks or more rose to 2.1 million last month. Also, people working part time because they can't find full-time work increased to nearly 5 million, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

Yet another segment of the population I had yet to consider are the nearly 5 million people latching on to part-time work for a lack of full-time opportunities. The tough part often times is part time work in some states has a screwy way of messing up your unemployment benefits.

But for now, congratulations to all the people who did find work in the last month although I do know such news can be frustrating for the millions more still unable to find work.

Statement of Kathleen P. Utgoff, Commissioner Bureau of Labor Statistics

Friday, October 3, 2003

The unemployment rate held at 6.1 percent in September. Nonfarm payroll employment was little changed (+57,000) over the month at 129.9 million.

The pace of job loss in manufacturing eased somewhat. In September, factory employment was down by 29,000 compared with an average monthly drop of 54,000 for the prior 12
months. The manufacturing workweek (40.4 hours) and factory overtime (4.2 hours) each increased by two-tenths of an hour over the month.

Employment in temporary help services rose (+33,000 in September) for the fifth consecutive month. Since April, the industry has added 147,000 jobs. Elsewhere in professional and business service industries, architectural and engineering services employment increased over the month.

In retail trade, employment rose at both motor vehicle and parts dealers and in building material and garden supplystores. Thus far this year, the monthly pace of job growth
in the latter industry has accelerated relative to 2001 and 2002, likely reflecting home building and improvement activities. Construction employment continued to trend up
over the month and, since February, has increased by 137,000.

Employment in the health care industry, typically one of the strongest areas of growth, was essentially unchanged over the month. With few exceptions, employment in most other industries was little changed in September.

Many labor market measures from the household survey showed little movement over the month. The unemployment rate remained at 6.1 percent, and the civilian labor force
and employment were flat. However, the number of unemployed who had been searching for work for 27 weeks or more rose to 2.1 million. In addition, the number of persons working part time because of business and economic conditions increased to nearly 5 million. The total count of persons at work part time, however, was essentially unchanged at 24.0 million. In September, the employment-population ratio was 62.0 percent, down a percentage point from a year earlier.

There can be a danger in only reading the headlines of news stories online or in print as seen in today's story about the sharp rise in unemployment claims last week.

If you were to go by the headlines alone, some would think that there was yet another round of layoffs throughout the country. Truth is Hurricane Isabel kept many unemployment offices in the East closed preventing thousands of people from making their unemployment claims until the following week.

"We probably need to average last week and this week together. And if you do that, it still shows a lower level of claims than what we had seen over the summer and last spring so it shows some modest improvement in the labor market, but still not significant improvement," said Gary Thayer, chief economist at A.G. Edwards & Sons.

As much as I love being critical of how the Bush administration has handled the unemployment crisis, it's just so easy; Bush gets a pass on this report, but no pass on the continuing unemployment crisis.

So remember, unlike our president who admits to only reading headlines, it pays to read beyond the headline and the lead in order to be informed.

Quick job lead for all of you. I hear there is a really sweet sports broadcasting job available. Send your resumes today!

Some of the companies I've featured in the past are back again today making headlines with the thousands of people each company is targeting to swing the axe at in the near future.

Leading today's list is Verizon, where the "can you hear me now" folks are offering severance packages to 74,000 members of management in its attempt to slash costs.

"Company spokeswoman Sharon Cohen-Hagar said Verizon expects "several thousand" managers to accept the package, which includes two weeks of pay for each year of employment up to 35 weeks, plus a bonus ranging from $15,000 to $30,000. A typical manager may earn $75,000 a year in salary, or about $1,400 per week."

"A separate buyout offer will be made to at least 12,000 retirement-eligible union technicians and call center operators upon ratification of their new contract, possibly next month. That accord brought concessions on employee health care expenses that the company estimates will save $500 million, but the deal preserved long-standing protections against layoffs and nonconsensual transfers to different cities or regions, provisions Verizon had been determined to eliminate."

Unemployment is the worst, but in these people's case, take the package and run. I was just reading an article yesterday, which I naturally can't find today, stating that some investors see the cell phone industry going in the same direction as the airline industry. Slight profit margins existing in an incredibly volatile marketplace. Such conditions are a scary proposition for investors, and more importantly, employees of those same companies.

I don't know what the rewards are for working for a Verizon, Sprint or Cingular, but the risks are as high as those cell towers killing neighborhood property values all over the U.S.

Not to be outdone in the unemployment headlines, Ford Motor Company and Chrysler are expecting to slash thousands of jobs from its worldwide workforce over the next couple of years.

"Fresh off the negotiating table, new labor agreements with the United Auto Workers will allow Detroit's Big Three automakers to eliminate as many as 50,000 jobs through a combination of buyouts and normal attrition during the next few years, industry analysts have said."

Buyouts still equals unemployed Americans and normal attrition spells out fewer available jobs in the U.S. as well. It all goes back to the theory that more and more jobs are never coming back and still fewer jobs are being created by the present economy.

Don't just take my word for it, follow along the words used today in a story by the New York Times on how a lack of new jobs is stalling the economy.

"Even as unemployment continued to mount last year, the number of jobs being eliminated fell below the level in the late 1990's, according to a new government report. But the number of jobs that businesses created in 2002 dropped to its lowest level since 1995. Compared with the size of the economy, the rate of hiring was even slower than during the weak recovery of the early 1990's."

Now before anyone goes thinking this is more fatal news for the Bush administration, I would remind you again on what I see as the Bush strategy for reelection in 2004. It's not the lack of jobs in America, Bush says, it's the amazing productivity of the American worker that allows companies to operate with greater profitability on fewer resources.

To be blunt, for a business, what could be better? Greater profits with less investment, everyone wants that! For Bush, it's the answer to his critics and not a bad answer at that.

The total number of unemployed Americans stands at 8.9 million as of Aug. 2003. The number of employed Americans stands at 137.6 million. Gee, if you're Bush, whose chain are you going to keep yanking?

Those facts and numbers alone show why Bush continues to sidestep the unemployment issue in the U.S. while grandstanding about the incredible productivity that stood at plus 6.8 percent in the second quarter of 2003 in comparison to the first quarter.

In closing today, and what a fruitful day it has been regarding unemployment issues, comes this little lighthearted suggestion from someone wanting to help you with your struggles with unemployment.

"After 10 hours of research preparation, five interviews, a small sample project and a battery of tests, you have just been turned down for the job of your dreams. What next? Send a thank you to everyone involved in your interview process, preferably within a 24- to 48-hour period."

I'd write a witty little comeback for that, but just knowing you joined me in rolling your eyes over such BS is enough for me, thanks.

Results are final on the first Not Working for a Living blog poll.

Of those who chose to participate, 54.1 percent do not expect to land a job before the end of the year and 45.9 percent are optimistic enough to believe they will find a job before the end of the year.

I would have expected a larger disparity, but clearly there are people with brighter outlooks on the economy and the unemployment crisis than I have. I've clicked on a number of polls the last few months and have been surprised by how often the results are basically 50-50. Forget my little poll, we're talking MSNBC and CNN polls with their thousands of users on national issues where the respondents routinely split right down the middle.

I firmly believe the 2004 election will be very close. I'm not predicting Bush-Gore 2000 close, but somewhere in the ballpark. An awful lot can happen between now and November 2004. Look how much the president’s popularity has swung since the end of the war in Iraq. Bush could ratchet up his numbers again depending upon events over then next 11 months, but I believe it is his opponent that will have a greater impact on Bush's margin of victory.

Found in my email box today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Metropolitan Area Unemployment (Not Seasonally Adjusted)

"Sixty-three metropolitan areas had unemployment rates below 4.0 percent in
August, about the same number as a year ago (66), while 57 areas recorded rates
of at least 7.0 percent, up from 44 areas a year ago. Sioux Falls, S.D., re-
ported the lowest unemployment rate, 2.3 percent, followed by Columbia, Mo.,
and Fort Walton Beach, Fla., 2.4 percent each, and Fargo-Moorhead, N.D.-Minn.,
Gainesville, Fla., and Portland, Maine, 2.5 percent each. The highest unem-
ployment rate again was reported in Yuma, Ariz., 34.0 percent, where jobless
rates in the summer months are typically double those of the winter months.
The next highest unemployment rates were in McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, Texas,
13.6 percent, and in four California areas--Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, 13.1
percent, Merced, 11.5 percent, Fresno, 11.1 percent, and Yuba City, 11.0 per-
cent. (See table 1 and the map.)"

"In August, Saginaw-Bay City-Midland, Mich., and Steubenville-Weirton,
Ohio-W. Va., had the largest over-the-year unemployment rate increases
(+2.2 percentage points each), followed by Jackson, Mich. (+2.0 points).
Twenty-six additional areas reported jobless rate increases of a full per-
centage point or more, with six of these located in Louisiana and six in
Michigan. Another 50 areas posted increases from August 2002 of at least
one-half percentage point. Florence, Ala., continued to register the
largest over-the-year unemployment rate decrease (-2.2 percentage points).
Five additional areas had jobless rate declines of at least 1.0 percentage
point, while 31 other areas had decreases of at least one-half point."

"Of the 51 metropolitan areas with a 1990 census population of 1 million
or more, Portland-Vancouver, Ore.-Wash., and San Jose, Calif., continued to
report the highest unemployment rates, 8.1 and 7.9 percent, respectively.
Miami, Fla., and New York, N.Y., had the next highest rates, 7.4 percent
each. Among these large areas, Washington, D.C.-Md.-Va.-W.Va., continued
to have the lowest unemployment rate, 3.3 percent, as it has since the be-
ginning of 2002. The next lowest rate was in Orange County, Calif., 3.8 per-
cent. Over the year, jobless rates were down in 23 of these areas, up in 22
areas, and unchanged in 6 areas. The largest over-the-year unemployment
rate decrease among these high population areas was in Salt Lake City, Utah
(-0.9 percentage point), followed by Atlanta, Ga., and San Jose, Calif.
(-0.7 point each) and Orange County, Calif., and San Francisco, Calif.
(-0.5 point each). Detroit, Mich., continued to record the largest over-
the-year rate increase (+1.3 percentage points), followed by New Orleans, La.
(+1.1 points). Six additional areas registered rate increases of one-half
percentage point or more."

Today I'll be thinking of a new poll to post on the blog. To my surprise, the results to this week's poll on whether or not you think you're going to get a job before Jan. 1, 2004 is pretty much 50-50. Good to see some optimism out there.

So you think the situation in Iraq and the new CIA-White House leak controversy has no impact on your ability to get a job? You think wrong, junior.

Ever since 9-11, we get really uneasy whenever there's anything amiss in the news as evidenced by today's report on the drop in consumer confidence in August. If you've read my blog for some time, you have known me to pound on this time after time, when the consumers don't consume, hiring does not resume.

Another bad poetry moment, thank you, thank you. Someone call Al Sharpton to rewrite.

When you bad all these scandalous episodes together, people once again go back to squirming and begin pulling the purse strings.

That is everyone but my wife who keeps Target's stock quite healthy.

There is just a cloud hanging over the unemployment situation in the U.S. and all the temporary hires for the holiday season aren't going to do much about it. Just like those tax rebates, for whatever didn't go to credit card debts has already been spent and is gone. We're back to the president sitting on Santa's lap this December asking for a break in the economy.

What the U.S. needs is a breakthrough, a big story, something everyone can rally around. Whether it be catching Saddam, Osama or the one-eyed Mr. Taliban, the U.S. needs a feel-good moment stronger than the typical ending of a Lifetime movie of the week.

We need something to take our minds and attention away from glut of death and destruction of Iraq; away from the sound bites and salvos of the Democrats; anything that has nothing to do with a leak problem in the White House. We need good news, good fun and something worth celebrating with a few rounds of beer.

America needs a Chicago Cubs-Boston Red Sox World Series victory.

Call me a whack job if you like, but this country gets goose bumps for stories such as this when it comes to sports. We need an underdog to rise up and win it all. What better than either the Cubs or the Sox taking the title.

Many of you will connect the dots from today to the Winter Olympics of 1980 when the U.S. hockey team stunned the world and took the gold medal and America's collective self-esteem to a higher level. So be it. If we just had something to feel good about again, to get people to take a breath, relax, enjoy and get back to feeling good again. When we feel good, we spend; when we spend, jobs usually get created.

Are we really that emotionally fragile that it takes baseball to lift our spirits? Yes. And it is just about time we snap out of it!

Following the news last week of rising number of families in poverty in the U.S. comes a report stating that the number of uninsured Americans rose by 2.4 million people in 2002 to 43.6 million people.

And just like last week, I would point out that one should expect that figure to only get worse in 2003 and 2004.

Getting back to work is an incredible payoff for anyone currently unemployed. However, one can no longer expect a new job to cover all your problems if you're looking for insurance.

I can't go any further on this topic without first presenting a word from the administration:

"Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson noted that the uninsured rate for children was relatively unchanged at 11.6 percent. Expansions in coverage in two programs aimed at covering the poor and children - Medicaid and the state Children's Health Insurance Program - "helped ease the impact of the economic slowdown," Thompson said."

Granted, it does feel better to know children are protected better today than in years past, but that still doesn't take the sting and stench away from knowing these same children live in homes where their parents are struggling with the most basic of needs.

No jobs, no money, no health care. Have we really fallen this low?

America: Producing healthy children in unhealthy environments.

Hot headlines from this weekend:

State's unemployment claims reach 10-year high The state in question is Wyoming. I'll bet you those dung-kickers still vote overwhelmingly for Bush in 2004.

Criticism of Bush finding more ears The story focuses on the two issues bringing the president the most trouble; Iraq and jobs. The Democrats should stick to nailing Bush more often over the unemployment crisis than Iraq. Remember, the Democrats rolled over and played dead on Iraq when Bush sought approval from Congress.

Blue Cross to cut 1,500 jobs Oh mercy! When a health insurance company the size of this mammoth starts unloading, you know the recovery is still far off.

Jobs are a thing of the past here in America Alan T. Saracevic (column author) has just earned a free pass to guest host my blog based on this one.

Gas prices fall sharply, survey shows I just wanted to prove I can highlight the good news for the unemployed too. Keep in mind, OPEC just cut production and your heating bills will really start to feel the impact of that decision.

Anyone looking for anything of substance concerning the unemployment situation in the U.S. from yesterday's Democratic presidential debate was surely left discouraged. But, that's all anyone should ever expect from debates in today's political climate. The issues are set aside for personal attacks on Bush and each other.

If you want something a wee bit more substantial, click on the links I provided yesterday to the Web pages of each candidate's jobs plan should one be elected president. Now, how much of what you will read is drawn up by the candidate or the handlers is anyone's guess. But, it may provide you with more insight than you'll ever gather from future debates.

One observation from the debate you can make is that Howard Dean is the clear front-runner based on the number of salvos sent his way from the other candidates. Two quick thoughts on Dean, first, his jobs plan seems to only consist of attacking Bush. Go to his page and you'll be hard pressed to find anything original from the governor. Next, based on what I've seen, Bush would wipe the floor clean with Dean as an opponent.

More pressing today is the completely discouraging story making the lead headlines all over the media today on the growing number of Americans living in poverty and the decline in income levels.

"The Census Bureau reported that 34.6 million people, or 12.1 percent of the population, were living in poverty, up from 32.9 million people or 11.7 percent in 2001, when the economy fell into recession after a decade of growth."

Keep in mind, this is focusing in on 2002, not 2003 when things have only continued to get worse.

Statistics are worse for minorities where the Census Bureau found that 23.9 percent of blacks and 21.8 percent of Hispanics were living in poverty. When you consider the fastest growing segment of the population is Hispanic, you're looking at a potential major economic problem in 5 to 10 years.

With the recession out of the way, the decline in income levels come from the unemployment crisis only now receiving its due in the media and on the campaign trail. It's news such as today's poverty report that finally brings the unemployment issue on par with the struggles in Iraq.

I remember during my bout with unemployment when I was mad as hell and I wanted the media to acknowledge the growing unemployment crisis hitting the U.S. Instead, we had Iraq, the Gary Condit mystery, followed by Laci Peterson, and on and on it went. Finally, the issue is up front where it belongs.

The missing portion of the poverty story is what impact will unemployment have on income levels for those who finally cash in and get a job? Face it, after months of unemployment, your income expectations suddenly become more negotiable. Don't think the person across the desk from you doesn't know this also. It's called getting lowballed and not being able to do much about it.

When you mix lower salaries with reduced benefits following rising debts from surviving while unemployed, the "hefty" Bush tax cut probably only brought things back to normal for families ... for about a month.

One month does not equal a lasting surge in the economy, and when the economy doesn't surge, jobs don't get created.

Pack it in for this week, find something enjoyable to do this weekend and get back into the hunt bright and early Monday morning.

Every election year there's always these great voter registration drives that have never made a great deal of sense to me. Call me old fashioned, but if you don't care enough to get informed and register on your own, fine, don't vote.

Following along that belief, and facing little unemployment or jobs news, I thought I would link to each of the Democratic candidates for president Web pages outlining their plans for creating jobs here in the U.S.

By no means is this an endorsement of any one candidate, economic plan or the Democratic Party, but with CNBC's big debate today, I thougt the timing was right.

By the way, the debate airs on CNBC at 4 p.m. ET and shown again on MSNBC at 9 p.m. ET.

John Edwards: It starts on the 10th page of a 64-page pdf.

Joe Lieberman: The info exists at the center of this page.

Howard Dean: Umm, I read a lot about Bush's plan, but not Dean's.

John Kerry: I keep confusing him with former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey.

Dick Gephardt: Has always been a favorite of labor.

Wesley Clark: If he blows it tonight, his jobs plan may not mean anything.

Carol Mosley Braun: This is actually taken from a candidate questionnaire supplied by the AFL-CIO off of Braun's site.

Bob Graham: He's the one the other candidates keeping asking questions of since they don't fear his getting a bunch of air time.

Dennis Kucinich: Isn't this the same guy who opened his speech by singing a patrotic song at a candidate forum?

Al Sharpton: He runs great smack, but produces a lousy Web site.

It's your call on whether or not you want to learn more about these candidate's plans for fixing the unemployment crisis in the U.S. I'm just supplying the mechanism to finding out more.

Hey, time for me to log off, but this just in. Gen. Wesley Clark, the current Democratic presidential flavor of the moment, has just released his jobs plan. (It's a New York Times site so you may need to register to read it.)

I don't have time to comment right now, but I thought I would pass it along and we'll catch up on it tomorrow.

You just had to expect it, didn't you?

The telemarketing industry wasn't just going to lie down on Oct. 1 and let the FTC rip the headsets off of its workers. So, the industry went to court and blocked the implementation of the national no-call list leaving open the door, or line if you will, to eventually shredding the list and allowing the telemarketing industry to continue on with its service to millions of Americans.

The legal move protects thousands of jobs across the country and probably saved your snail mail and email boxes from exploding with unsolicited amounts of junk. This industry isn't just going to go away. It has too much money and has been far too successful for too long to have it just suddenly stop. Plus, there are several other industries that would hate to see telemarketing go away in its present form.

Let me put it to you another way. Did all the deaths from cigarette smoking kill the tobacco industry? So what makes you think inconvenient phone calls will bring down telemarketing.

For those of you showing little sympathy to the people currently enjoying employment through telemarketing, take heart. The Direct Marketing Association says the no-call list violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. Well, I can't help but think John Ashcroft's Patriot Act violates some Amendments too, so telemarketers, don't rest so easy in your ergonomic office chairs.

The FTC is appealing the ruling. Stay tuned.

Good grief. Just as gas prices were beginning to settle back down making it economically affordable for the unemployed to carry on with life in their cars, OPEC tightens its fist on production rising gas prices up again.

Let's hear it for mass transit, baby!

What makes the rise in prices hurt more this time than earlier in the summer is it will also have a direct impact on your heating bills.

"OPEC's move comes at a bad time, right before the start of winter heating season in the USA. Oil prices affect the cost of all heating sources used in the USA, including natural gas, which is used in more than half of U.S. homes."

Yet another reason to finally begin weaning ourselves off of the oil coming from the Mideast when there are increasingly more options available elsewhere in the world.

So, out of work and stripped of unemployment insurance, many of the unemployed must now face higher gas and heating costs coupled with skyrocketing increases in health insurance and rent costs at the start of 2004.

Even if the national unemployment rate falls to 5.9 percent by the end of the year, that number still represents millions of people, many with families, who still have to struggle with trying to get by at the costliest time of the year. And I still submit to you that as we draw closer to the holiday, many companies will have layoffs to try and save their way to a better bottom line at the end of the fourth quarter.

Why here's a company just today making such layoff plans. And another. And still another. All today, and I found them with very little effort.

As far as lowering the unemployment rate during the fourth quarter, how many of those jobs filled will actually be more than temporary or come with benefits? The new trend for benefits in 2004 is too provide health insurance, but strip out vision and dental.

Advice Time: If you have a vision and dental plan through a spouse, get those check-ups out of the way now! Don't count on your HR staff to give you a fair enough warning. Get in the chair now!

As desperate as things continue to get for the unemployed, just think how things may become if all those telemarketers begin shelling out resumes for the same jobs you're looking to land. I'm not saying they have the same skills or are qualified, but your resume could become another piece of straw in the haystack of resumes that could soon be flooding the job landscape.

Flying into the face of optimism for an unemployment recovery and a fruitful economy comes news impacting the auto industry. According to a Goldman Sachs analysis, the Big 3 automakers here in the U.S. could be shipping 50,000 jobs off of the assembly line in the next four years.

"Analysts with the Wall Street investment bank calculated that the closure or divestitures of 10-13 parts and assembly plants provided for under new labour contracts, plus regular attrition, could result in the loss of 50,000 hourly jobs in the United States."

Who on the union's side of the bargaining table spent his or her downtime sniffing glue? How do you let that go by without an objection?

The labor contract has yet to be ratified by the rank and file of the United Autoworkers union. Based on a story such as this, we'll see if the rank and file falls in line.

Just the other day I received a call from my stepbrother telling me how he was turning down a $100,000+ a year job overseas. My brother is currently in the military making a fraction of that salary. His skills from the military will probably lead him to a career in auto mechanics, but it almost certainly won't be paying him more than $100,000 a year.

"Wake up, crackhead," I yelled into the phone as my brother isn't the sharpest tool in the drawer and I saw this as a once in his lifetime opportunity.

In his defense, the overseas job is in Iraq.

In my defense, it's still more than $100,000 a year!

My wife grabbed the phone from me and began yelling at my brother as well. She really didn't care whether or not he took the job; she wanted to know where she could forward my resume.

I realize an overwhelming amount of the news from Iraq concerns the rising daily death toll of U.S. soldiers, but those stories are simply not capturing the entire picture of what's going on in Iraq.

"The Baghdad that (Time reporter Brian) Bennett sees is a city where gunfire erupts every night and dozens of Iraqis are reported dead in the morning. Looting and robberies are common. "There is a mounting terrorist threat, and the people who want to kill American soldiers are getting more organized," he says.

But he also sees a city where restaurants are reopening daily, where women feel increasingly safe going out to shop, where more police means intersections aren't as clogged as they were this summer. "My neighbors are nice,'' he says. ''My street is a pretty quiet place."

When Bennett visited the USA a few weeks ago, he realized that, five months after the U.S. invasion, the Iraq he lives in doesn't mesh with the bleak picture that friends here are getting from the media."

Contractors from the U.S. are landing multi-million dollar deals to rebuild Iraq and they are looking for people to go over there and get the job done. My brother repairs Humvees and other large vehicles for the military, he's exactly the type of person needed in Iraq along with other people skilled in various reconstruction trades.

The danger zone in Iraq has always seemed to have been centered on Baghdad and the "Tikrit Triangle," which isn't surprising since it was the base of Saddam Hussein's power. You rarely hear the same reports from parts north and south of that troubled region of Iraq.

I'm not about to get into policy regarding Iraq, that's not the purpose of the blog, but when presented with an opportunity such as this, and based on the slowly recovering job market at home, is it worth going to Iraq to make that kind of money with benefits and living expenses combined? My brother's job offer would allow him to live on a compound away from the population where the real problems start and end.

I look at it like this, if you're unemployed, single, and always had a soft spot in your heart for the Peace Corps, why not inquire about the opportunities? Hey, this is much better than the Peace Corps, at least with this; you're getting paid mad dollars!

My brother has resisted my arguments and plans on returning to the U.S. once his time with the Army is done. At that moment, he will join the great number of unemployed people in the U.S. scraping for whatever type of job they can find. He might score one right away, make some nice pocket change and live happily ever after.

I hope that's the case.

Of course, he could also find himself like too many other people who are unemployed for months desperate for any job, any place, at any price.

I hope then he doesn't regret not going to Iraq and making a difference. A difference not only in his life, but also in the lives of so many others.

Hot headlines from this weekend:

U.S. Jobs: Next Stop, India? Next stop? Try first stop in you're in the computer field.

Industry slashes jobs as mortgage boom fizzles out Now that mortgage rates are on the rise, you'll start to find that a steady career in real estate may turn out to be nothing more than the employment flavor of the moment. That moment is quickly going away.

Guns, gay marriage and jobs, jobs, jobs Yeah, instead of making the economic survival of its state the top priority, Wisconsin will throw itself into a fever pitch over guns and gay marriage issues. Cheeseheads!

Senco to consolidate, cut 125 jobs Hmmm, I thought someone (Mr. Commander and Chief) keeps telling us the unemployment problem is going to get better? This must just be a blip on his radar.

Airport contractor may cut 225 jobs I hope Bush has a big radar because we still seem to keep finding a lot of blips!

Hurricane Isabel may be wrecking havoc along the Carolina coastline, but her impact on the employment situation in the region may be beneficial for some people as its going to take a number of construction types to rebuild and reinforce the area after the storms subside.

The one industry that stands to be hurt the most is insurance with eight companies in particular owning up to three-fourths of the property insurance accounts in the region.

The companies are according to Weiss Ratings:

State Farm Insurance; Nationwide Corp.; Allstate Insurance Group; Citigroup Inc.; USAA Group; Erie Insurance Group; NC Farm Bureau Insurance; and Zurich Financial Services Group.

Give it one to three months and each of these companies will be sending out rate increases. However, I once again fail to have sympathy for these companies as insurance is nothing more than a necessary evil for the consumer and an educated gamble for the insurer. However, unlike your trip to Vegas, insurance companies are always cashing in, it's just that when they talk about beating the house, they mean your house!

Some call it encouraging news, others see mixed results, but the number of unemployment claims were down last week by 29,000 from the previous week.

"The drop in initial claims was the largest one-week decline since a 31,000 decrease in the week ended April 5, and brought claims well below Wall Street forecasts for 410,000 after the 422,000 originally reported last week."

However, the number of people drawing unemployment benefits overall rose to 3.68 million which I will point out again does not count those who have exhausted their benefits. Also, remember there are a large number of people who have yet to begin claiming unemployment while living off the rest of their severance packages from their former employers.

Keeping the focus on those who have lost their benefits, non-profit organizations that lend a helping hand to those who really fall down on their employment luck are also feeling the pinch of today's economy and are finding it as difficult as ever to assist those in need.

"... for possibly the first time since Ronald Reagan attacked the public welfare state, non-profits face the very real prospect of significant, continuing declines in government funding, their second-largest source of revenue. Many state and local governments, facing budget shortfalls, have already pared back. Congress, staring down $500-billion-plus annual deficits, is beginning to debate cuts or slower spending in some social programs."

A large part of the problem here is the federal government is passing the burden on to the states who pass on to their counties and cities who then have less and less for the non-profits. When states and cities continue to cut vital services in the fields of public safety, you know the local charities, food banks and hospitals are going to get less than a fair share.

So, the poor and unemployed are left with little in the way of public support while the federal government focuses in on spending billions of dollars it doesn't really have on improving the conditions in Iraq.

Before you Bushies begin zipping emails my way, I'll grant you this, President Bill Clinton was guilty of the same practice of shifting more and more of the burden of funding such non-profit programs to the states as well. (And, yes, he was guilty of a few other things as well, but we're getting off topic here). However, Clinton didn't set the country up to be picking up the entire tab for the reconstruction or Bosnia as we are currently doing in Iraq.

To keep things timely, the American Red Cross says its disaster relief fund has no money to assist those hit by Hurricane Isabel.

Did you catch that?

The Red Cross didn't say it is a little short of money;" it said it had none, zero, zilch. How appropriate that that's about the same amount of support the federal government is currently giving to the unemployed. If you don't believe me, ask some of the people at some of these non-profits ... provided you can find one where the door still opens and the lights are still on.

I wanted to suggest three books worth reading that deal with the topics of working in America, employment and the state of living in these here United States.

The links to each of these book titles go to barnesandnoble.com for no real reason other than it's what came to mind when I decided to do this. Trust me, I'm not making a nickel off of this little blog ... not that I'm not open to the idea.

The Two Income Trap This is the book USA Today highlighted earlier this week on the ongoing struggles of today's middle class.

The Betrayal of Work The sub-title is "How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 35 Million Americans" which may not have been a factor in your life a year ago, but may really be one now during this unemployment crisis.

And finally, Nickel and Dimed which I will highly recommend as the author tries to make due on the paltry wages earned as a waitress, cleaning woman, sales clerk, etc. What I find amusing is these are the same types of professions politicians grovel over in their speeches, but completely forget about once they get into office.

And yes, I would include the Democrats in that scenario as well. Tell me, how much better did the working class in the U.S. really do during the Clinton administration? I'm not saying things weren't better for the middle and upper class, but for the hourly earner, Clinton didn't do much better than his predecessors.

Democrats use the hourly earners in the U.S. like a chess player uses its pawns ... as disposable cogs towards a greater goal.

My final suggestion regarding these books, should you currently be unemployed, is not to go out and actually buy the books, my apologies to the authors for this suggestion, but go out and check them out from your local library. I'm not so sure about the first two books, but I can assure you Nickel and Dimed is surely in a library near you and worth the investment of time.

As I told you earlier this month, (or was it last month?) tobacco king RJ Reynolds is slashing 40 percent of its workforce citing stiff competition but not its inability to market its product as it had in the past.

"Last month, RJR's parent company said its quarterly profit and sales fell sharply from year-ago levels because of increased competition from discount cigarette brands."

Shareholders were thrilled with the news as the company stock jumped 10 percent in morning trading. RJ Reynolds says it is looking to consolidate some of its operations and outsource other company functions. Uh-Oh! If you didn't receive your company pink slip today, be afraid, because it sounds as if you soon will.

Obviously, RJ Reynolds was not among the 21 percent of U.S. companies seeking to hire additional staff during the fourth quarter of 2003.

So ... do things get any more exciting today in regards to unemployment? Not really. Although I do find it fascinating that unemployment continues to improve in other parts of the world including Great Britain where unemployment has hit a 28-year low.

My latest edition of an "unnamed business publication" predicts that unemployment will continue to go down, but only so slightly, by the end of the year. The mark set by the publication is 5.9 percent.

Now the only question is how do you get to be in that .2 percent of the unemployed who will suddenly find employment, and what type of employment will that be?

A positive sign gets our morning off to a kick today as Manpower announces that 21 percent of companies surveyed were planning to hire additional staff during the fourth quarter of this year.

The rest of the survey breaks out with 11 percent expecting to cut and the rest holding steady through the end of the year.

There wasn't a region of the country that looks to be hiring more than any of the others although the winning industries include financial, insurance, real estate, (which is on a ad buying splurge of late), transportation and public utilities. As one might also expect, the retail industry will take on its usual holiday labor force as will the wholesale industry.

Overall, count that as a 10 percent gain in hiring overall. The nationwide survey covered 16,000 companies and the Manpower CEO says signs for a job recovery are optimistic.

I'll remain guardedly optimistic, but I'll take some good news for a change.

The more economists continue to fan the flames of an economic recovery, the worse I feel for anyone unemployed and expecting a quick fix.

I'll even grant you the fact that there are at least some signs of an economic recovery, but I wouldn't go as far as today's group of economists that are predicting strong economic growth during the second half of the year.

"The group expects gross domestic product, the country's total output of goods and services, to grow at a 4.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter and a 4 percent rate in the October-December period.

"That forecast, if correct, would mark the first time since 1999 that GDP has grown at a rate of 4 percent or better for two consecutive quarters."

The group also predicts this will spark an upward swing in employment that hasn't existed since, oh, let's see, the Bush administration.

I'm only one person against a slew of think tank brainiacs, but I wouldn't expect to see this upward swing in hiring until at least the end of the first quarter of '04. If you can find employment before then, hats off to you, but for a majority of the unemployed it's spring or bust.

One must keep in mind the current economy is a fragile, fickle thing with Iraq, trade deficits, the deficit itself, and the looming threat of terrorism still hanging over each promising economic report.

Businesses enjoyed a modest rise in sales in July, however, many sectors continue to keep their inventories low as the lingering doubts listed above are hanging over many industries as well. Get all the think tanks to crunch all the numbers they want, until the corporate heads begin to buy into an economic recovery, it and an end to the unemployment crisis isn't going to come any time soon.

To close today's list of stories comes another story from USA Today, which by the way seems to be the only news source willing to put a daily focus on the economy and the jobless situation in the U.S.

Cut from a book titled, "The Two Income Trap," USA Today focuses on the hardships faced by the middle class in this country, the same middle class politicians are always fighting to win over come election time.

In short, it's even tougher today to survive as a middle class family than ever before.

Reasons for the sour outlook on the middle class include, a rising cost of living exceeding the gains in salaries, soaring credit card debts (I still say that's the silent economic killer in this country) and a lack of savings for retirement and children's college funds.

Some damning facts from the story include:

- 92 percent of the record 1.6 million (bankruptcy) filers in the year ended June 30 were middle class, according to a Harvard University study.

- The average employee contribution toward health insurance premiums is $2,412 for family coverage this year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That's a 13 percent increase over 2002.

- About 80 percent of low- and moderate-income homeowners spent more than half of their income on housing in 2001, according to the Center for Housing Policy. Many experts say no more than 36 percent of gross monthly income should go toward credit card bills, car payments and mortgages combined.

- Credit card debt for middle-income families is soaring — up 75 percent to $5,031 between 1989 and 2001, according to a new report by Demos, a non-partisan public policy organization. About one-third of (divorced) families owed an entire year's salary on their credit cards. (I don't know about you, but I only wish I had a credit card debt of $5,031.)

- Nearly 90 percent of families with children who file for bankruptcy cite three reasons: job loss, divorce or medical problems, according to the Consumer Bankruptcy Project at Harvard University, the largest study of consumer bankruptcy in America.

Keep in mind, this is with two-income households, we're not talking about the many thousands of households where one or both earners have found themselves out of work.

All kinds of people can keep fanning the flames of an economic recovery all they want, but is it fair to say we're on our way back when the divide between the haves and have-nots continues to grow wider and wider? The only economic recovery I'll buy into is the one that provides opportunities for everyone who seeks them.

Hot Headlines from this weekend:

Unemployment offices face overflow For whatever reason, I never added those people who are living off the last few morsels of their severance packages to the list of upcoming unemployment starts. My bad!

Some financial jobs not returning to Lower Manhattan It could also be that they're simply not returning anywhere!

U.S. jobs lost since 2001 gone for good, study says OK, this headline qualifies as the most depressing of the weekend, week, month ...

Candidates agree growth in jobs needed What a stunning development this must have been in the race for governor in Louisiana. Job growth needed, who knew?

Finding light after series of odd jobs Must read material for those of you who felt like saying, "Screw this unemployment crap, I'm starting my own business." I say go for it!

"The greatest failure is the failure to try." - William Arthur Ward