Last week, the Feds reported that 441,000 jobs were added to the economy. That’s good news.
If fact, it’s “the best news” President Obama has heard in awhile.
How do we know ? Because he said so.
But, 411,000 of the 441,000 were temporary census workers – hired to chase down folks who didn’t return their paper survey forms. That’s bad news.
It means that private employers added less than 1,000 jobs per state.
The WSJ coined the situation “Employers on Strike” (see article hi-lites below)
As usual, the Homa Files were a couple of months ahead of the biz press.
In early February we called it passive aggressive behavior:
Real business guys tell me that they are, in fact, holding off hiring until “things settle down” in the economy.
Further, they fear draconian reprisals from Team O if they show any resistance to the anti-business initiatives or rhetoric.
They might be the next industry to be tax-jacked, punitively regulated, or publicly scorned as eco-dangerous, socially-negligent, wealth hoarding profiteers.
So how can businesses fight back against Team O?
Easy. Just ‘recast’ each potential new hire as a vote for Obama’s policies … and refuse to pull the lever.
It’s called passive aggressive behavior.
Why unemployment will stay high … at least until after the 2010 elections.
https://kenhoma.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/why-unemployment-will-stay-high-at-least-until-after-the-2010-elections/
Now, we can make two sure-shot predictions:
(1) Businesses — large and small – will contain hiring until after the Nov. elections when the legislative “spill” is contained.
(2) The Census will run into unexpected procedural issues (i.e. “systemic failures”) that will require even more Census workers kept on the gov’t payroll even longer.
* * * * *
Excerpted from WSJ: Employers on Strike, June 5, 2010
Congress keeps giving business reasons not to hire. Almost everything Congress has done in recent months has made private businesses less inclined to hire new workers.
- ObamaCare imposes new taxes and mandates on private employers.
- Congress raised the minimum wage to $7.25, pricing more workers out of jobs.
Note: The teen unemployment rate rose to 26.4% in May, and for those between the ages of 25 and 34 it rose to 10.5%. These should be some of the first to be hired in an expansion because they are relatively cheap and have the potential for large productivity gains as they add skills. - The “jobs” bill that the House passed last week expands jobless insurance to 99 weeks.
Note: Empirical evidence suggests that lengthening unemployment insurance prolongs unemployment - The “jobs” bill raised taxes by $80 billion on small employers and U.S-based corporations.
- On January 1, Congress is set to let taxes rise on capital gains, dividends and small businesses.
None of the above are incentives to hire more Americans.
If the administration wants this to be more than a jobless recovery, it should drop its government-creates-wealth illusions and start asking why so many private employers remain on strike.
Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704764404575286831965692578.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h
The Homa Files 
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