US Economy's Ups/Downs

In January 2012 we heard that teen unemployment was nearly 25% and about 1 million construction jobs are expected to be offered in 2012 (California’s WINTER has a 10 week program and was teaching women to prepare for these jobs as an iron worker makes $23 an hour compared to a waitress making $10 and less than 1% of said jobs are filled by women). In February the US Labor Department said the median income rose 4% in 2011 to $51,413 and the Bureau of Labor Statistics said jobs came in all areas but there were still 19.3 million unemployed or under employed and 5.5 million of them are long term unemployed. We also heard that home foreclosure filings rose 3% and General Motors (GM) reported its biggest profits ever. Because of the GM news and unemployment filings being at their lowest in 4 years, the stock market closed at its highest level since May 2008 and Moody’s Analytics and all 10 of the US’ top economists now agreed that the US was on its way to recovery as people were upgrading silverware, dishes and other things.

In March the economists said the recovery was happening faster than anticipated and unemployment could be down to 8% by November. However, we also heard that foreclosures rose in 26 states. As such the Bank of America was to test a program that would give homeowners in foreclosure the option of giving the house back to the bank, having the loan forgiven and renting the house back at market rate. (May 26 the LA Times reported - the Bank of America Corp. sent 300 letters this week inviting borrowers without other options to apply to test a mortgage-to-lease program in the Golden State. An additional 1,500 letters will go out in the next few weeks as the bank -- which also is testing the program in three other states -- evaluates whether a national rollout is feasible.) In April an economist said legalizing marijuana would save the government $13.7 billion a year (I’m not sure we want to change the laws). In May the Census reported a record low small business start up in 2010 and the railroad was expected to hire 15,000 this year. Also it was said that 1 in 3 workers were expected to retire in the next 5 years leaving hope for new workers. On May 8 per the Labor Department there were 3.74 million jobs open in March. It was reported that 25,000 more women had joined the men in America’s oil fields from 2004-2012. Hewlett-Packard said it will cut 27,000 jobs in the next 2 years due to IPads, etc. (per Computerworld the Chinese-based computer manufacturer Lenovo at its current pace will surpass Hewlett-Packard as the world's largest PC maker by the beginning of 2013. In the third quarter of 2011 Lenovo passed Dell to take the industry's second-place spot).   

In June we heard that in the last 27 months almost 4.3 million jobs were created but only 69,000 jobs were added in May (28.000 construction and 13,000 government jobs were lost) and unemployment remained at 8.2% and because of the lack of improvement the stock market closed at its lowest level in 2 years. In response to this information the President requested that Congress fast-track a bill allowing homeowners to refinance at the lower rate so they’d have some extra spending money and pass the Jobs Act. Romney said we should be well into a robust recovery and the President always finds someone to blame (in the background was his campaign poster ‘Putting Jobs First’ and CNBC showed the price of crude oil dropped 3.7%); he went on to say Obama’s policy has created uncertainty in the business world. Some CEOs said the real reason for the lack of jobs was the debt crisis in Europe and the US and the lack of political will to deal with it (they don’t seem to know we’re all in the same boat) which causes investors to wait. In a speech on June 8 the President said the private sector was doing fine in creating jobs (meant to show the government needs to hold up its end but we all should know the private sector can do more) and the Republicans ran with his mistake in words. On June 21, 15 of the world’s biggest banks, including 5 in the US, were hit with credit downgrades; the banks are stable but it will cost consumers more to do business (will need good credit to get a loan).

On July 6 because jobs in the last 3 months dwindled, the President said that the jobs created were a step in the right direction; Romney said it doesn’t have to be this way, America can do better and this kick in the gut has got to end – I agree - the millions put into campaigns could’ve been better used on jobs – I do wonder what Romney thinks a president can do when he’s unable to do anything if Congress doesn’t cooperate. You would think that Congress would at least approve the infrastructure jobs mentioned in the Jobs Act since the heat in tearing up roads across the country. The kick in the gut is coming from the Republicans in Congress, not the President. On July 10 a Consumer Group found that people were losing their homes to a few hundred dollars in back taxes. So the government has the banks working with people and now the local governments are being jerks. 

I’m confused. The Labor Department said there were 3.74 million jobs open in March. In late June California cherry growers couldn’t get people to pick the cherries for $10 an hour so the crops are going bad and on July 14, I heard that the Denver, Colorado Full Contact internet startup company is so desperate to hire 12 programmers that they give $7,500 for you to take a vacation anywhere. People are complaining and not taking jobs that are out there (a doctor told me it’s because welfare pays more with benefits. I hope this isn’t the case).