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What Happened to Focus on Jobs?
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 16, 2010 9:38 AM |
If America and Americans are not at work, then how can we truly expect any other initiatives and undertakings to gain a foothold? There is nothing that generates more personal and collective confidence than a job. In fact, I would go even further and state that a job not only generates personal confidence for individuals, but ultimately a job very often defines a person’s self-worth.
Then why is it that the topic of jobs is not the OVERWHELMING focus in Washington eight days a week? While President Obama elevated the focus on job growth in his State of the Union speech, the topic seems to receive front page coverage only on the first Friday of the month when unemployment statistics are released.
Consistently, CFOs of major corporations in our country state that one of the primary reasons they have not increased staff is due to uncertainty in legislation and regulation coming from Washington.
Our political leaders in Washington along with a number of economists seem to believe that jobs will grow simply because they always grow when a recession recedes. Basic logic does not dictate that premise to be a certainty.
The ‘talking points’ utilized by those in Washington project that our economy and markets are experiencing cyclical unemployment. I firmly believe they are wrong. Our economy and markets are experiencing structural unemployment.
Without a recognition of that fact and then an unwavering emphasis on addressing that reality, CFOs will continue to fluctuate in regard to increasing payrolls. By unwavering, I mean the White House should be consistently beating the drum on this topic while promoting policies and programs that inspire confidence in the CFOs. I see little to none of this happening…and I watch each and every day.
Perhaps we will see some “beating of the drum” on the first Friday of April when the monthly employment statistics are heavily spun, but that drumbeat sounds very shallow.
LD
