Critique- Poverty on the Economy

The article “1.2 Billion People Want a Job but Aren’t Looking” covers the topic of the recent raise in job offers and the recent decline in job takers. They also cover how older people have been taking over the job market with an 8% increase over the past decade in workers over the age of 55. This being the case, many younger people newly entering the job market find themselves jobless. The article claims the reason for this phenomenon is that people have simply given up hope in looking. With 151,000 new jobs on the market, doesn’t that sound a little strange?

What USA Today forgot to mention was the category and duration of jobs being offered. Thanks to Globalresearch.ca, we are able to find that 88,000 of these new job offers were only temporary and 48,000 of those temporary job offers were for the purpose of conducting the US census survey. Also, in the previous article they did not explain that of the 1.2 billion people were not simply unemployed, but underemployed, meaning that some of those 1.2 billion people are working, but they are only working part time. 9.1 million people throughout the US are trying to find full-time jobs, but they are forced to work part time.

Another very important aspect affecting the job market is the ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to Gross Domestic Income (GDI). We are now experiencing the largest gap ever recorded between GDP and GDI. In 2009, gross domestic product raised by 5.6 percent. The productivity, or input put into these productions then increased at a yearly rate of 6.9 percent. Even with input being in such high demand, labor costs decreased by 5.9 percent. Also, later in 2009, the gross domestic product rose by 2.2 percent while gross domestic income stayed at the same rate.

What all this comes down to is, how can USA Today claim that the American stereotype of laziness is the main factor of our failing job market? There is a plethora of evidence backing up the American public as to why it is impossible to find a sufficient job. The US government needs to have greater restrictions on gross domestic product and income as well as a better idea as to what counts as a job. It is unbelievable that they claim they have put so many jobs on the market when in fact they are only part time, temporary jobs which still leave people “underemployed”. In conclusion, it is the incompetence of the US government that is the cause for our high unemployment rates, not the spirit of the American people.

Websites used:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=18552

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-11-08-discouragedworkers08_ST_N.htm