Forgotten Millions Still Matter

Divided families, dwindling finances, foreclosed homes, totally jobless – that’s what life has meant for millions of Americans from 2007 to today. Yet for the employed, especially politicians in Washington, not much has changed.

Turn on the TV news today and you see little about the jobless and underemployed – 13.7 million and 8.3 million Americans, respectively. It might be argued our leaders care more about the Mideast and the federal budget deficit.

The April edition of Reader’s Digest offers the ugly truth about the greatest economic collapse in United States since the Great Depression of the 1930s:

“More than half of all U.S. workers either lost their jobs or were forced to take cuts in hours or pay during the recession,’’ RD says. “The unluckiest suffered prolonged unemployment, bankruptcies, or foreclosures, which are now at 65-year highs.”

The icing on the cake, by way of New York Times Op-ed columnist Paul Krugman, is simply this:

“More than three years after we entered the worst economic slump since the 1930s, a strange and disturbing thing has happened to our political discourse: Washington has lost interest in the unemployed.

Difficult To Escape

“It might not be so bad if the jobless could expect to find new employment fairly soon, but unemployment has become a trap, one that’s very difficult to escape,’’ Krugman says.

“There are almost five times as many unemployed workers as there are job openings; the average unemployed worker has been jobless for 37 weeks, a post-World War II record.

Krugman, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, asserts our nation is well under way to creating “a permanent underclass of the jobless.”

How can that be?

Krugman, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, says part of the answer may be that the jobless tend to stay that way, and those who still have jobs are feeling more secure than they did a few years ago.

Layoffs and buyouts spiked during the crisis of 2008-09 but have fallen since then, perhaps reducing the sense of urgency, Krugman says.

The U.S. economy now suffers from low hiring, not high firing, so things don’t look so bad — as long as you’re willing to write off the unemployed and underemployed, according to Krugman.

Closer To Home

Take, for example, a former employer of mine, Gannett Co. Inc., the largest publicly owned newspaper publisher in America.

Under CEO Craig Dubow, GCI has eliminated 20,000 jobs since 2005 -- nearly four of every 10 employees, according to the Gannett Blog, an independent daily journal about the company.

It’s not a stretch to believe a good number of those former Gannett journalists remain unemployed or underemployed. And keep in mind this is just one of many industries slammed by the recession.

The Great Recession was a cold slap in the face for many of us who enjoyed the 1990s boom, when technology advances and soaring stock prices offered unlimited potential – even a hint of early retirement, or at least a secure one.

The Bitter Pill

Today’s reality is quite another matter. Even so, millions of unemployed and underemployed should not simply be written off because it’s politically convenient to have them fade from the spotlight.

For those among us who survived the recession relatively unscathed, good for you and your family!

But while you continue to enjoy the fruits of your labors, please take a moment to remember the less fortunate, your former co-workers.

Urge your elected officials to do the right thing by enacting a “real” jobs bill that puts people back to work permanently, not in some temporary make-work (pork) project.

Stealing some lyrics from the Police song, “Invisible Sun,” nobody should be relegated “to play the part of a statistic on a government chart” and why should they?

Let's all keep that in mind as we move forward and out of this mess, together.

Ken Cocuzzo

Temp Jobs Trend Higher

Temporary workers now account for more than a quarter of the jobs added since the Great Recession technically ended, and some experts predict those types of jobs will continue indefinitely as employers seek ways to trim labor-related costs.

The trend is for companies to count more on the services of temporary workers and less on full-time employees, who already may be overworked because of layoffs and buyouts.

This is great news for companies pressing for increased productivity and reduced costs, but it does not bode well for the underemployed and unemployed seeking full-time work.

More than 15 million people remain jobless, with the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent in November. For many, even a temp job is better than no job at all.

Temp workers typically receive few or no benefits – health care, holiday pay, sick time. Essentially, temps work for cash on a per-diem basis, with no job security. Every day could be their last at work.

The New York Times notes that “it is harder for them (temps) to save. And it is much more difficult for them to develop a career arc while hopping from boss to boss.”

There are several factors driving the trend toward temps, including the way work is handled in America’s post-recession era.

“Businesses now tend to organize around short- to medium-term projects that can be doled out to temporary or contract workers,” the Times reports.

And flexibility is another factor: it’s much easier to end a bunch of temp contracts than to actually go through layoffs, according to mediabistro.com.

“We’re in a period where uncertainty seems to be going on forever,” David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tells the Times.

“So this period of temporary employment seems to be going on forever.”

View From Inside

Having been a temporary worker more than once in my professional career, I can say it offers more advantages than disadvantages to employers and the temp. It can be an “audition” for both parties.

From the employer side, there is little red tape in terms of temp hiring and termination. The application, background check and interview process typically are the same as for a regular, full-time employee.

In a temp arrangement, an employer tries the worker on for size, to see if he or she fits the position and company culture while performing the same job as regular staff.

It’s not easy, even after an exhaustive resume review and rigorous interview process, to be certain someone is right beforehand for any job.

On the flip side, the temp can do the same thing in terms of sizing up the company and whether a full-time, regular staff position – assuming it’s available and offered later – would provide financial stability and flexibility for professional and personal growth.

A survey by Staffing Industry Analysts, a Mountain View, Calif., research firm, shows 68 percent of all temporary workers are seeking permanent employment, the Times reports.

Temp Worker Advances

My previous career as professional journalist in daily newspapers began this way:

A college internship led to a temporary reporter’s job that led to full-time employment in the career of my choice. Certainly, not all temp work ends in such a positive outcome, but the potential does exist.

The key for me turning the temp journalism job into a regular one was performing at the highest level; that is showing mastery of basic skills, willingness to learn new ones, and developing interest regardless of the assignment.

If you’re not curious about the why and how of things, chances are you won’t make a very good journalist. You have to combine reporting (gathering facts) and writing (context packaging) to get the job done right, regardless of print or electronic format.

Change Direction Now

My point is the use of temporary workers – to fill gaps and cut costs – should not be considered a long-term substitute for hiring full-time employees who, admittedly, do bring higher costs, especially in the health and retirement benefits.

Whether you’re an employer or employee, temporary staffing is a practical solution for the here and now.

But it offers no lasting commitment to the future, whether that’s building a business, improving-maintaining services, or developing a career path.

Temporary workers should be just that, temporary. There's too much at stake for all sides of this equation to let this trend become permanent.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com. If you like this post, please share it.

America Isn't Working Right Now

It’s time we face the ugly truth: It will take years for the U.S. economy to recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The evidence is piling up despite political blather from our elected leaders.

• Combined ranks of unemployed and underemployed remain steady.
• Employer hiring, especially for full-time jobs, continues to be anemic.
• Consumers, for the most part, are hesitant to spend except on essentials.
• Unrestrained federal spending is driving in U.S. debt to historic levels.
• Iraq and Afghanistan wars are draining our human and financial resources.

We’ll skip the immigration battle, health care fiasco, and Gulf of Mexico oil disaster because it gives all of us a collective migraine (and WMB previously dealt with those issues). Happy Birthday America!!!

Sarcasm aside, let’s examine the facts contained in the Associated Press story on the latest jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department:

Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, the most since October, according to the Labor Department, which noted the loss was driven by the end of 225,000 temporary 2010 Census jobs. Businesses added a net total of 83,000 workers, an improvement from May but below March and April totals.

The unemployment rate dipped from 9.7 percent to 9.5 percent, the lowest level since July 2009. But it declined because 652,000 people gave up job searches and left the labor force. People no longer looking for work aren't counted as unemployed.

The report suggests businesses are still slow to hire amid a weak economic recovery. Many economists hoped for more job growth, which would fuel the economy by boosting consumers' ability to spend (without a job, or one that pays decent wages, who has money to spend?).

"It could have been worse, but it wasn't good," Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, told AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber. "It's adding to the evidence that growth has slowed.’’ People left the work force "because they think there's nothing out there," Gault added.

It’s more than thinking on the part of job hunters.

Check out the online boards or newspaper classifieds, and the jobs range from high-paying, high-skilled technical work (multiple college degrees) to low-paying, low-skilled physical work (high school education).

But there is very little in the middle of the extremes and what’s there tends to be part-time or temporary work, with no benefits. It’s not surprising many have given up looking for work in such a climate.

As the AP notes, the nation still has 7.9 million fewer private payroll jobs than it did when the recession began in December 2007. It takes about 100,000 new jobs a month to keep up with population growth. The economy needs to create jobs at least twice that pace to quickly bring down the jobless rate.

All told, 14.6 million people looked for work in June. Counting those who gave up job searches and those working part time but would prefer full-time work, the underemployment rate dipped to 16.5 percent from 16.6 percent in May.

Progress? Not by any reasonable assessment. Yet most of our leaders seem totally clueless about what we – the middle class of America – need to survive.

Consider President Obama at the recent G-20 summit of world leaders in Toronto. He urged continued spending as a stimulus while just about every other head of state advocated cutting deficits to address problems affecting the global economy. What does Obama know that the rest of the leaders don’t?

And Congress just adjourned for the long holiday weekend without extending unemployment benefits. Excuse us, but there was plenty of money to bail out Wall Street, automakers and others with their hands wide open – but none remains for out-of-work folks?

Our elected leaders, Democrats and Republicans, have their priorities screwed up. It’s not about perpetuating their politics, paychecks, benefits and perks as career public officials; it’s about serving the public interest, the mainstream folks who put them into office in the first place.

America was and is a great place, but we’re showing our age because of our leaders’ inability to look beyond gimmicks (cash for clunkers?) and quick fixes (just go shop?) and develop sustainable plans that transcend partisan politics and individual agendas.

So far, few elected leaders have shown courage to distance themselves from the herd and risk their political careers
by making tough and unpopular decisions. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (budget) and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (immigration) appear to be rare exceptions by going where others fear to tread.

November is not that far off. Perhaps it’s time for Americans to stop complaining that nothing ever changes, especially since many don’t vote. We should clean house by using term limits via the ballot box. It’s our best chance at ending the gridlock that rots thinking in D.C.

Public service is a privilege, not a right of the wealthy, powerful and connected (although that’s what our bloated system now embraces). Nobody should expect re-election; individuals should go in with the idea of one term and done.

Our Founding Fathers did not install a king or dictator to lead us, but instead had delegates representing the voters of each state elect a president (George Washington) in 1789. It's likely they shared a belief that the emerging nation, which declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, was bigger than one person or a single group of people.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union ... the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution (1787) and the Bill of Rights (1791 amendments) laid the foundation for our country.

Sure, our Founding Fathers weren't perfect (slavery), but the structure and rights expressed in the Constitution are not just a collection of words unless "We the People" allow that to happen through indecision, indifference and division.

America always should be a work in progress, with fresh faces and ideas moving us forward.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com.

Spin Doctors Offer Bad Rx

Nobody likes bad news when it comes to cutting jobs and disrupting personal lives. For employers who care about staff and image, frank and fair disclosure is the best public relations policy, not spin.

It seems some folks forgot that wisdom recently in two instances, one involving Hewlett-Packard, the other with Sony Ericsson. In both cases, these companies got themselves more trouble than they bargained for by using poor judgment.

HP, in a news release, buried the fact it was cutting 9,000 jobs by putting emphasis on its plans for growth. Sony Ericsson advertised for a new PR director by bluntly telling the unemployed not to bother applying.

Nobody in a position of authority at either company saw any problem with these approaches, how they send the wrong message?

"HP to Invest $1 Billion to Launch New Era of Enterprise Services" was the headline for the Palo Alto, Calif., tech giant’s news release. On the surface, it sounds like good news – solid growth opportunity. But if you drill down, the news is not so rosy. In fact, it’s not good at all, unless you’re a shareholder.

“As a result of productivity gains and automation, HP expects to eliminate roughly 9,000 positions over a multi year period to reinvest for further growth and to increase shareholder value,’’ HP says.

Reporters worth their salt know the real headline is that HP will lay off 9,000 workers, as opposed to the $1 billion investment, writes Joe Ciarallo for PRNewser . The Spinmeisters at HP decided to bury the bad news inside what appeared to be positive news and hoped nobody would notice. With HP’s well-documented internal and competitive struggles in the past decade, why did it resort to such lame PR?

HP should have known better. Well-run, publicly-traded companies balance the needs of employees and the interests of shareholders, a win-win. You must have both parts of the equation to succeed over the long term.

HP did say that it will "add back about 6,000 jobs in its global sales and services staff ," according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The net reduction of 3,000 jobs represents roughly 1 percent of HP's 304,000 employees worldwide, reports Brendon Bailey of the Mercury News. HP provided no details, but the cuts are likely to be concentrated in operations that HP took over from Electronic Data Systems, a global tech services company based in Texas, which HP acquired in 2008, according to Bailey.

The online headline for the Mercury News story – “Hewlett-Packard to cut 9,000 jobs, take $1 billion in charges” – captured the full flavor of HP's moves. (Disclosure: As a former newspaper copy editor, I appreciate clarity).

Sony Ericsson, a consumer electronics manufacturer headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, offended many with a recruiter’s advertisement which essentially tells unemployed individuals their applications for the company’s PR director job will not be considered. Does SE think there aren’t any terrific PR folks out of work? Sure sounds that way with such a bonehead ad which damages the company’s reputation. And, judging by comments at LinkedIn, SE needs to do some serious damage control if it wants to attract talented individuals for any of its future job postings.

While the unemployed and underemployed are not protected categories under U.S. anti-discrimination laws (gender, race, age, sexual orientation), it’s hard to imagine anyone not taking offense with what amounts to be a corporate policy statement by SE. At minimum, it shows a lack of sensitivity to those out of work through no fault of their own.

As one LinkedIn commenter points out: “The (flawed) assumption of employers who post positions but refuse to accept applications from people who are not currently employed is that unemployed people were bad employees who deserved to lose their jobs. They seem not to recognize that there is a global recession which caused many companies to go bankrupt or cut back severely in order to survive.”

Many folks are out of work or underemployed because of poor decisions made by corporate officials or by company owners who prospered in the boom days. But now that things have soured with the Great Recession, these same employers feel unmoved to take the extra step of looking closer at applications by experienced workers seeking jobs.

The SE recruiter (possibly from pressure by social media?) has toned down the language in the PR job opening ad, according to another LinkedIn commenter, who noted the ad still stresses the need for current employment in consumer electronics manufacturing.

Bottom line: It’s likely some very qualified individuals will seek work elsewhere as a result of this SE episode.

The lessons from HP and SE are basic ones for any company or business, large or small. Manage your image and reputation carefully. Fail to do that and any situation – from a news release to a job advertisement – can lead to unintended consequences.

As most of us know, nothing really ever dies or disappears in virtual world. In the absence of sound judgment and common sense, employer PR miscues can have long-lasting impacts.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com.