Mixed Signals

Reading articles on the economy and the job market nowadays can give a person a severe case of whiplash.

Unemployment is down to around 7% after hitting a high of nearly 10% some three years ago. Hooray!

Yet major companies like Disney and Caterpillar have announced layoffs and jobless claims are up. Closer to home, my own company continues to cut positions and my gut feeling is that more layoffs are on the way.

So what gives? Which do we believe?

An article I read this morning puts it all in perspective. Yes, the unemployment rate is down, but that’s because many long-term jobless have simply given up looking for work. Either they have retired early (if they were in their 50s), gone on disability (if they qualified), or gone back to school (if they are younger).

“Unemployment dropped for all the wrong reasons,” summed up one economist.

This is happening in our supposedly recovering economy? When will it ever end? When will companies start to hire again and stop this vicious cycle of more and more layoffs?

I have to chuckle every time I read a politician or some commentator complain about people living off of unemployment benefits. First, we’ve paid into that fund with our payroll taxes, so we are, in essence, getting our own money back. Why is right for us taxpayers to bail out major companies when they make stupid mistakes, but honest, hard-working people can’t get funds to help them when they are going through a rough patch with no work?

Second, once those unemployment benefits run out and a person cannot find work, they are going to move to another social safety net, like foods stamps, disability or Social Security. Yet nobody, least of all the corporations, want to pay taxes that help support those programs.

And most likely, jobless people are receiving less income then they were when they were working, so they cannot buy goods and services, which forces companies to cut more workers.

So come on, Mr. CEO, how about hiring more workers? Let’s stop this vicious cycle. Put people to work and get this economy moving forward again. We’ll all benefit.