More Than The Economy Sucks 3 Years After 'Recovery Summer' . . .

. . . Long-Term Jobless - Part-Time Positions Dominate -  2 Million Jobs Less Than Pre-Recession Employment

It was three years ago that then-Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner penned an op-ed for The New York Times proclaiming, “Welcome to the Recovery,” but the economy continues to sputter along, with unemployment still high and full-time work difficult to come by.

Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported, “For those left behind by the long, slow economic recovery, time is running out. More than four years after the recession officially ended, 11.5 million Americans are unemployed, many of them for years. Millions more have abandoned their job searches, hiding from the economic storm in school or turning to government programs for support. A growing body of economic research suggests that the longer they remain on the sidelines, the less likely they will be to work again; for many, it may already be too late. . . . [T]he recovery isn't reaching many of the most vulnerable. For those without a high-school diploma, the unemployment rate in July was 11%. For African-Americans, it was 12.6%. For teenagers, 23.7%. Even more worrisome to economists are signs of a bifurcation in the labor market: For those unemployed less than six months, the odds of finding a job have improved steadily over the past year; the long-term unemployed have made almost no progress at all. . . . Recent studies in both the U.S. and overseas found employers often won't even consider the long-term jobless for openings. Many have given up applying. Nearly seven million people say they want a job but aren't actively looking for work. The share of the population that is working or looking for work—a measure known as the participation rate—stands near a three-decade low.”

And instead of a robust recovery, what growth there has been seems to be in part-time and temporary work. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, “While the U.S. economy stumbles along, hiring is igniting in one segment of the labor market — temporary work. The number of temporary workers nationwide has risen more than 50 percent to 2.7 million — the most on record — since the recession ended in June 2009, the Labor Department reported. The trend is likely to intensify, workplace experts say. The rise in the number of temporary workers is being driven by two factors — uncertainty about the economy, and companies cutting employee hours because of costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, workforce experts say. . . . Nationwide, 8.7 million jobs disappeared from payrolls during the recession, and the economy is still 2 million jobs shy of pre-recession employment levels, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a global outplacement and consulting firm. ‘The depth of the recession and the slow crawl back to a full recovery forced many Americans to become more flexible and more creative when it comes to finding a job and earning income,’ said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas. ‘Employers also had to become more flexible and creative in order to simply stay afloat during the downturn,’ he said. An estimated 1 in 3 Americans are considered contingent workers, meaning they work for organizations on a nonpermanent basis as freelancers, independent professionals, contractors, consultants and temporary workers, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. ‘By 2020, some forecasts have the portion of contingent workers rising to 50 percent of the American labor force.’”

Writing at CNBC, University of Maryland economist Peter Morici points out, “Although in line with recent months, jobs gains have been heavily weighted toward part-time positions. Since January, 936,000 additional Americans report working part-time, while only 27,000 more say they have obtained full-time positions. The shift to part-time workers, partially a reaction to Obamacare health insurance mandates, puts downward pressure on wages and benefits in low-paying industries such as retail and restaurants, and widens income inequality.. . . So when you add in discouraged adults, who have quit looking for work altogether, and part-timers who want full-time employment, the unemployment rate becomes 14 percent. . . . Even with more full-time positions, the pace of jobs creation is well short of what is needed. About 360,000 jobs would lower unemployment to 6 percent over three years, but that would require GDP growth in the range of 4 to 5 percent.”

The Times-Dispatch adds, “Christine Chmura, president and chief economist of Chmura Economics & Analytics in Richmond [said,] ‘Although the recession ended a few years ago, the job market remains weak. . . . Sluggish economic growth is part of the reason for the continued high levels of part-time workers.’ Another likely contributor to the high level of part-time workers is the Affordable Care Act, Chmura said. ‘Because there is a 30-hour cutoff for mandatory health benefits, some employers are reducing the hours of some full-time workers so they don’t have to incur additional health care costs,’ she said. . . . Hazel Mobley, a caretaker for seniors who lives in the Fan District, said her hours were cut in March from 40 to 28 because of ‘Obamacare.’ ‘Obamacare has been a game changer,’ said Mark Collins, president and CEO of American Dedicated Logistics, a contract management and logistics support company based in Richmond. ‘The thought of having to pay health insurance for delivery drivers has sent shockwaves throughout the supply industry,’ Collins said.”

No wonder, then, that Americans are still not very confident about the state of the economy. National Journal wrote last week, “[C]onsumer confidence in the economy remains stuck in the negatives—and it's heading further south. . . . Forty-two percent of Americans say the economy is improving, while 54 percent say it's getting worse. Twenty percent rated current economic conditions ‘excellent’ or ‘good,’ and 35 percent called them ‘poor.’ The Gallup Poll attributes the results to discouraging employment news, rising mortgage rates, and other factors. While the unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent in July when the economy added 162,000 jobs, the numbers were fewer than expected. At that rate of job growth, it would take about seven years to close the job gap created by the recession, The New York Times reported.”

As Indiana Governor Mike Pence said in the Weekly Republican Address last week, “These are difficult days for too many Americans. Our economy isn’t growing as fast as we would like, and businesses aren’t creating as many jobs as we need. In states like Indiana, we’re working every day to give people more freedom to grow their businesses, but the over-regulation, higher taxes and new mandates coming from Washington, D.C. are stifling our economy and hurting efforts being made in states across the country.”

And the Obama administration's solution: restrict businesses, reduce access to America energy resources, infringe on individual rights, bankrupt America with Obamacare and more government spending, and drag America into another war in the Middle East. Unfortunately, in America today, more than the Economy Sucks!

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