by justinb
22. December 2009 10:53
The question job seekers across the country would love to hear an answer to is - where are the jobs if the unemployment rate is falling? That must be a terribly difficult question to answer, since no one has yet to provide a plausible answer. Instead the digital airwaves are fluttered with a bunch of hype about the unemployment rate declining trend. First off, a single month of significant declines hardly calls for a job growth celebration. Second, using states like Michigan as a poster child for declines in job losses carries little weight. After all, with Michigan having the dubious honor of a 14.7% unemployment rate down from 15.1%, at some point there aren't too many people left working in Michigan to fire or layoff.
This displaced emphasis on job loss reductions only fans the "no job creation flames." Moreover, if these job loss reductions had merit we would know just what industries are absorbing the unemployed and providing gainful employment. To date such information has yet to be made readily available. Thus, job loss reductions are likely attributed to the following:
- Unemployed job seekers falling off the radar when all possible unemployment benefits are exhausted.
- High unemployment shifts to other states as job seekers relocate to states with lower employment rates than their home state.
- Temporary & Seasonal hiring for the holidays which will expire as the New Year begins.
Surely everyone whether employed or unemployed would delight in the fact of mass hiring replacing mass firing. Unfortunately, that has yet to happen. Even the economic experts believe it will take a least 2 million new job in 2010 just to slow down the unemployment rate from the current 10% line in the sand. Needless to say that is a tall order even for the glass half full optimistic folks. So, the unemployment rate is falling but where are the jobs? We aren't out of the woods, yet, until, we can start pointing to industries that are hiring or will soon be hiring in gross numbers. 