Georgia’s jobless rate falls slightly to 9.9% as discouraged workers give up search
Georgia’s unemployment rate fell slightly to 9.9 percent in July from 10 percent in June, as discouraged workers gave up their job search so they are no longer counted as unemployed, the state labor department reported Thursday.
“Although the unemployment rate remained virtually unchanged, a growing number of discouraged workers dropped out of the workforce,” state Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said in a statement. “For the second consecutive month, the number of jobs in our state declined, new layoffs increased and long-term unemployment continued to rise.”
There were 230,100 long-term unemployed Georgians in July — those who have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer, the labor department said. This represents an increase of 90 percent from July 2009.
The long-term unemployed now account for 49.8 percent of the 462,372 jobless workers in Georgia. That’s one out of two people searching for a job.
During the past two months, Georgia’s labor force has declined by more than 40,000 as discouraged workers dropped out, the labor department said. This is the first time since 2001 that Georgia has experienced significant reductions in the labor force for two consecutive months.
The number of payroll jobs in July fell six-tenths of a percentage point in July from June, the labor department said.
A total of 68,089 laid-off workers filed initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits in July — an increase of 5.1 percent from June. Most of the first-time claims were filed in manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, administrative and support services, and construction.
This is the 34th consecutive month Georgia has exceeded the national unemployment rate, which is currently at 9.5 percent.
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119 comments Add your comment
Larry
August 19th, 2010
8:50 am
A liberal voter is a dominant member of the following groups:
Medicaid (can’t take care of themselves)
Welfare (wont take care of themselves)
Illegal immigrants
Entitlement minded, irresponsible minorities (dominated by blacks)
Prisoners and inmates (dominated by all of the above)
Hollywood (where faith, standards, values and loyalty are absent)
Pimps (those liberals that pimp you idiots to vote for them so you can get something for nothing). You’re too stupid or closeminded to get it, or you don’t really care!
Yes, there are ineffective and immoral individuals from all parties, but at the end of the day I accept my share of the responsibility and I will always err on the side of those who GENUINELY believe in one marriage between a man and a women (not two hairy apes in the same bed plowing out one another’s fecal filled rectum), have a strong faith system (O’bama doesn’t even attend a church or a mosque, whatever it is he truly believes), lower taxes for the taxpayer to distribute, not the government), and one who argues personal responsibility.
If you do not agree, then you a a card carrying member of the group above–this is your fellow constituency!
Tony
August 19th, 2010
8:53 am
Good attitude Kathy don’t give up you are always one phone call from changing your current position. I I find the best sites for looking are simply hired and indeed.com Monster and Careerbuilder, don’t offer as many open positions as those sites. I was out of work for over a year before this started and took a job well below what I was qualified for to put food on the table. I believe things are changing you have to believe it will get better and don’t give up.
Traci
August 19th, 2010
8:54 am
Of course the unemployment rate is going to be high and is gonna remain high.
If we’d top supporting all the places that buy everything in china – and bought american made proucts – we’d all get things buzzing again.
But people can’t stay out of WAL*MART – so we spend our money at the places that don’t even manufacture goods in America. Things that americans make and produce.
What do we actually MAKE in GEORGIA?
ItsThursday
August 19th, 2010
8:54 am
I didn’t vote for Obama but let’s stop the bashing! The enconomy was going under when Bush was in office. People are just mad that he’s half black. It’s only been 18 months since he has been in the office. As far as the lay offs some companies are just laying off because they want too and because of office politics. I was fired last year because my boss was fired for breaking company policy and the next person in charge hated my guts since day 1 and this gave her the opporunity to give me the boot. I was out of work for two months and I found another job that is closer to my house and have way more benefits. Jobs are out there but now it’s who you know but not what you know. Also Facebook and Twitter are excellent networks for people to find jobs. That is how I found my current job was on Twitter. I know some people are giving up but this has to turn around one day.
Larry
August 19th, 2010
8:55 am
Mike,
The collective mean IQ of Liberals is so low it is hopeless. They’re either too stupid, too brainwashed or both, so I have resolved to look at them like one looks at a profoundly retarted child–we can love them but they are totally dependent upon us for everything.
We just need to vote an November 10 and in two years so se can best take care of them.
WitchHazel
August 19th, 2010
8:56 am
Real American what Obama did to save GM and Ford was criminal. There are bankruptcy laws he did not go by. Typical secure creditors are first in line in a bankruptcy case but in this case Obama paid back the unions for their vote and the secured creditors got screwed. His policies are slowing down the economy and I have first hand since I work in retail about Obama. I hear our HR department have no clue about Obama care and the new taxes imposed on their business coming next year. People elected a college professor and community organizer, not a business minded person that believes in taking money from someone else and giving it to others.
The last time I needed a job, it was from a wealth person. Economics 101 rich people invest and create jobs, ask Warren Buffet. The country had severe issues, one being outsourcing and off-shoring. There are trillions of $$$ in companies oversees accounts but they will not invest in the US because of the taxes. Its politicians that has got us in this mess, how the h@ll can China get raw material from the US make a product and ship it back to the US cheaper than we can make it here. Unions, corrupt politicians, and lobbyst. I am in IT and we say this crap in the 90’s when lobbyst would talk to politicians about the need for H1 visa’s, consult with a major corporation, hire 3 H1 visa employees for 1 US born citizen. Now many IT jobs are going to Costa Rica and eastern Europe instead of India. Many manufacturing jobs are going to Vietnam because of rising cost in China.
Larry
August 19th, 2010
8:57 am
retarded…but “retarted” sounds like most of them speak anyway!
Nonia
August 19th, 2010
8:57 am
Our country has been setup for failure long ago when shifted from being a “producing country” to a “consuming country”. Economist across the country are sitting and waiting for us to spend our way out of recession which is crazy! Our country has run out of gas for even the wealthy have grown bored with purchasing things that arent needed. We have started to re-evaluate if items we purchase are items we need or is it something we want.
Traci
August 19th, 2010
8:59 am
Larry – your thinking is flawed as well.
The prisons are full cause it’s a BUSINESS.
One of the corporations that is a huge player in the PRISON BUSINESS is owned by Cheney & Rumsfield.
If you are in the PRISON BUSINESS – you have to keep them full. It’s a racket.
This unemployment rate is higher than 9% in Georgia. It’s more like 18%
Traci
August 19th, 2010
9:01 am
WitchHazel…. Bush was a businessman that ran 3 companies into the ground and a baseball team
All failures. so what does that say about your – BUSINESS MAN
Real American
August 19th, 2010
9:01 am
Larry, let see which party is the stupid one, Shawn Hannity made 25 million last year, Glen Beck 30 mil, Rush L. 50 mil, 3 out of 4 never went to college but you idiots go out and buy their books spend money at their events, and yet they tell you they are for the little man.
And by the way their are more whites on welfare then blacks, but I guess you can not research yourself idiots like beck have to do for you.
Traci
August 19th, 2010
9:02 am
Nonia – I ;like the way you think. Finally – someone who sees the big picture.
Traci
August 19th, 2010
9:04 am
Real American – AMEN!!!! Finally another person – who gets it.
Glenn Beck wasn’;t acidic until he saw all the money Rush and Hannity was making – when he changed his business model stated spewing :hate”- he jumped to the top of the money making list.
Kenny Webb
August 19th, 2010
9:04 am
Atlanta needs an image makeover to attract big businesses…Not sure is Deal is the right image for the Governor of this failing state he made a ton of money off cash for clunkers!!! Barnes old news…. We needed someone new and for the people not a corrupt politician and political rerun.Too many dishonest politicians that get to keep their jobs!!!
Traci
August 19th, 2010
9:04 am
Enter your comments here
Larry
August 19th, 2010
9:06 am
WitchHazel,
Great, great points! Unfortunately the only ones who’ll understand are the one who share your intellect and wisdom!
Liberals in this country are analogous to the insane thinking al-Qaida followers and believers. As they are taught by their parents from birth to kill an infidel is honorable and (if you commit suicide during a road side bomb in a crowded area) you’ll wake up in heaven with a thousand virgins for doing do, liberals teach their children at a young age to depend on the government for their subsistence and always stick your hand out for a freebie–you just might get something.
Traci
August 19th, 2010
9:07 am
WitchHazel – Rich people do not create jobs – Trickle Down economics has already been debunked. Economist have proved that already.
Rich people do not create jobs – they keep the money in their pocket.
Traci
August 19th, 2010
9:11 am
Larry – a lot of people are conservative in their thinking – I don’t have to be a “red state member” to pay attention to what is going on.
If you read other sources to get yor information. You would stop repeating “talking points”.
WitchHazel is wrong and so are you!
Traci
August 19th, 2010
9:13 am
back to unemployment – This is WORLDWIDE.
The real rate is 15-18%. If you can not find a job – create your own.
Real American
August 19th, 2010
9:15 am
Whitch Hazel,I am sure if you were going to lose your job like the people at GM Ford you would not have no problem what the President did, the bottom line millions of jobs were saved from shipping to working in the plant, you people never want to give these man creiit for saving us from the Great Depression.
When FDR took over from Hoover unemployement was at 25% it took him 2 years to bring it down, you expect President Obama to do it in 19 mos, you people are sick.
Tychus Findlay
August 19th, 2010
9:16 am
Nonia- it can certainly be argued that we have shifted from a producing economy to a service based economy. I believe the number is around 70% for service based jobs. The real culprit is the thuggish power of the various Unions that essentially utilized their collective bargaining power to negotiate their wages high enough that it because cheaper to import the products they created e.g. steel, auto.
Now, we don’t produce anything and all of our money goes overseas which further damages the trade deficit and continues to wreak havoc on the economy at large.
Larry
August 19th, 2010
9:16 am
Real American,
You see, this is why you and your fellow degenerate liberals are so stupid. You only argument (jealousy) is to attack the high income of those who have jobs in a free market and then make another stupid statement about welfare. Of course there are more whites on welfare–there are lazy, stupid whites too–but as a percentage of their total US population, blacks are off the charts as compared to whites.
I bet you think O’bama is doing a great job, don’t you?
The Economy
August 19th, 2010
9:17 am
Atlanta is attracting a certain group that Corporate America doesnt want to be associated with, thats why they are leaving. Atlanta has an over blown ego that is filled with a sense of entitlement, the I deserve/need/want it now thing. People lived so over there heads, now there loosing homes/cars/marriages/familys and yes jobs. Unemployment is more like 14%, though you’ll never see that in the paper. Wall St. controls the US Gov, who control U as well, get used to it.
It will get worse before it gets better.
Larry
August 19th, 2010
9:24 am
Traci,
I have not used one “talking point.” Unlike you, I am not dependent upon nor do I rely upon anything or anyone.
Fret not, however, we conservatives are givers and believe in freely giving to those in need, versus haveing the government forcefully extract this privilege from our paychecks and handle this for us. In other words, Traci, we’ll take care you and all 12 of your children when you can’t locate any of their 12 different fathers!
Real American
August 19th, 2010
9:32 am
Larry, I bet you thought George Oil did a great job, this is why we are where we are today, No one is attacking High income just wonder how you people can follow uneducated idiots like Beck, Rush and take what they say is law. By the way go to Iowa, ID, whites are 95% on welfare I dont rely on bigots like Rush to research my facts.
The President is doing great compared what he was left with,
scott
August 19th, 2010
9:46 am
I STRONGLY AGREE WITH ANDY IN BLAIRSVILLE!!!Atlanta,s best days are behind her and she peaked in 1999 the well has now ran dry its corrupt and poorly planned and well on track for being the next Detroit ..i agree with him again head up i85..greenville/spartanburg/Charlotte/raliegh durham ..are the new magnets for jobs and better places to live than crime infested/thug infested/congested/Atlanta..my neighbor was out of work for 9 months applied at a company in raliegh/charlotte got a call the next day left Atlanta 1 month agoworkin at a company with a 6 figure income in raliegh..good friend got a job yesterday in greenville..for every job in Atlanta 20,000 are applying..get out of Atlanta if you wanna get to work!!!!and stay out!!!
scott
August 19th, 2010
10:11 am
my fellow white americans…president obama did not cause the mess we are in and cannot clean up a mess made by george w bush and greedy corrupt republicanns in 19 months he is just one man..and i do think while bush was in office our country was in worst shape then he let on..Blame him!!! he started 2 costly wars at 10 billion a month that we cant win and put the country in a downspiral..also quit listening to BECK,HANNITY,LIMBAUGH..AND THINK FOR YOUSELF(THESE GUYS ARE RICH AND GETTING RICHER BY MISLEADING YOU AND MAKING YOU ANGRY(THEY MADE OVE 95 MILLION COMBINED LAST YEAR)SO THEY WANT MORE OFF YOUR BROKE A$$ by telling you anything to make you spend your last money on thier books to mislead yoou more…BE A PATRIOTIC AMERICAN AND GET BEHIND OUR PRESIDENT FOR THE GOOD OF AMERICA AND NOT A POLITCAL PARTY…AND DO AS ANDY IN BLAIRSVILLE SAYS GET OUT OF ECONOMIC ATLANTA(THE NEW DETROIT!!!CHANNEL THAT ANGER NOT AT THE PRESIDENT BUT BY PACKING YOUR BAGS TO GREENVILLE/CHARLOTTE/RALIEGH!!!!GET CRACKEN!!!!!
A.S.Mathew
August 19th, 2010
10:23 am
Can we at least check the label of the product and read where it was made! Whether it is Wal -Mart,
Sears, K-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, Dillard, Macys, 1 dollar store, any electronic store etc, we can’t
find anything made in the U.S. But 90% are from China with U.S. and Japan name brand. Can anybody
calcuate the number of jobs lost to the Americans due to the export of manufacturing to other
countries for cheap labour and high profit for the corporations? Until this trenad is reversed, our
unemployment rate will stay higher and it will never get better. The greed has destroyed the
country.
Let us pay a little extra, and buy American goods, else we are heading towards an economic crisis
without any hope in the horizon. Our educated children will have to find jobs overseas, and the U.S. real estates will be turning into wild forest.
Road Scholar
August 19th, 2010
10:45 am
Larry: “… I am not dependent upon nor do I rely upon anything or anyone.”
Like the truth or a brain? Manners? Also, why do you have to insult people, esp liberals, with today’s problems? You must be one of those “compassionate conservatives”?
The rest of you bashers, you’ve already insulted our president, portions of our society, decisions that have been made, etc. If you are so knowing, why aren’t you running for elected office? Most of you are for term limits, so there is “job opennings”.
Or is learning about our laws, federal proceedures, legal proceedings, details concerning industries, statistics about the American people, having reasoning and communication skills, etc. beyond your capabilities? Your compassion skills and the ability to not insult anyone who comes into contact with you is non-exitent.
Why not state your point in positive fashion, based on facts? Too hard for you to grasp? Or is it just easier to hide behind your keyboard and spew hate?
Pam
August 19th, 2010
10:48 am
For all of you who are saying that it’s easy to find a job, stop it please. I have worked since I was 18 (now 57) and this is the first time I have been out of work. It is not fun. I was making $22 an hour and I have applied for jobs making half of that. I have applied at Target, Kohl’s, Belk, everyplace except Wal-Mart, but I have absolutely no retail experience and nobody will hire me at a much lower salary because they think I won’t be happy. I was told that by the hiring agent at Target. So my age is probably not as much as issue as my last salary was. I know several other people who are also unemployed. They are all intelligent people. It really doesn’t matter how smart or hardworking you are. Unless you can get called in for an interview, it doesn’t matter. It’s just a horrible situation.
Buddy
August 19th, 2010
10:57 am
There are so many places we could point fingers that we don’t have enough fingers. I was in college during 2007 and our economic class was divided up into two groups, one side would be for NAFTA and the other side against. We debated the issue. I was on the side that was against NAFTA and it was like studing for a nightmare or a train wreck that was going to happen and there was no stoping it. NAFTA is the main cause for our situation today along with, and some of you have touched on it already, “buying United States Products…notice I didn’t say American Made products” American made products include North and South America and you know what countries are included there. I was sent an e-mail this week showing a new ship Walmart had purchased for $145 million dollars that would travel back and forth to China (91% of the products sold by Walmart are from China) loaded down with products purchased from them and the ship would return to China as soon as it was unloaded, empty (meaning NO exports of any kind)for more products. People, look at your checkbooks and notice where you spend a lot of your money. If it’s not made in the United States…how can we keep our citizens working???
SickAtHeart
August 19th, 2010
10:59 am
The real estate crises is a consequence of Clinton’s administration: “Let’s put everyone in a house.” Lenders awarded money to people who created unrealistic budgets with hopes of home values escalating within 5 years. “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” Now we know that this was a gamble that most could not afford to make. If every mortgage lender had required at least 20% down at time of closing then we would have fewer borrowers that are upside-down on their mortgages. A large number of families are one paycheck away from disaster. Unemployment puts them on that track as UI does not replace your income but provides some stop-gap income. This is as bad as the mid-seventies when Carter was President.
Tychus Findlay
August 19th, 2010
11:05 am
Pam,
Your problem is that you’re applying for a BS job well below your payscale. Your previous salary and age are only going to hurt your chances of a lame retail job that you don’t want to work anyway. Look at who staffs those positions- teenagers and kids in their early twenties who are fine with making $8 an hour.
Pam
August 19th, 2010
11:25 am
Tychus, most of the jobs I apply for are for higher paying jobs. But I am going to lose my house in a couple of months if I don’t find a job, so that’s why I am applying for everything. My point was that the higher-paying jobs pretty much don’t exist any more. And the ones that do exist have so many people applying for them that it’s like winning the lottery to even get an interview. And I am 57 years old, which I’m sure is not helping me. But I keep hitting “apply” and hoping for the best. Otherwise I will be living in my brother’s spare bedroom or becoming a beach bum by November.
TnGelding
August 19th, 2010
11:31 am
Keep looking! Volunteering for charity work might open up some avenues. The times they are a’changing. It’s going to take awhile for this to shake out. After all, it didn’t happen overnight. If you can afford it, splurge. A potion of it will eventually make its way back to you.
TnGelding
August 19th, 2010
11:37 am
SickAtHeart
August 19th, 2010
10:59 am
Clinton did no such thing. Prudent guidelines were soupposed to have been followed, something that was observed until the “ownership society” president slept through 8 years.
But it doesn’t matter now. We’re the ones that keep buying cheap imports. Stop it, already!
Larry
August 19th, 2010
11:47 am
Someone needs to say it…if you don’t have a job you really don’t want one or you’re too stupid to get one!
With an unemployment rate of 10% that means 9 out of 10 people are working. Got it, stupid liberals? Now, out of the 10% that are not employed probably AT LEAST 1/2 of these (5%) are fat, lazy liberals that would rather watch Oprah, eat pork rinds, and wait for that monthly welfare check from their Pimps, Democrats.
Of the 5% that is left this means one out of 20 aren’t getting work. Why? You are either too fat, a 50 year old have bald dude with a pony tail, or you’re still looking for that job you had a year or two ago that will pay you the same salary and while looking you’ve exhausted your savings.
There are plenty of jobs IF you want to work and stop telling your wife or husband you just can’t find anything. The key is “anything.” Take anything while you look!
bNformedNvolved
August 19th, 2010
11:51 am
@ Lou: You are exactly right. We have sat silently while the corporations that started right here in the good old USA shipped our jobs overseas. We have allowed them to receive exhorbitant tax breaks to appease their greed and now act as if we can’t believe how selfish and money-driven they really are. Their is a documentary that basically says that based on all the traits most corporations display, if they were a person (which by the way is how they want to be classified in order to receive certain tax breaks), they would be diagnosed as a sociopath. So, sociopaths are deciding the fate of this country (because if you believe govt. is in charge over big business, I have a bridge…well you know the rest).
@Mike Jones: We were well on this path before President Obama came into office. While this ship is sinking, if we don’t stop the finger-pointing and name calling like a bunch of 3rd graders, we will all be at the bottom of the oil-slicked ocean together.
Larry
August 19th, 2010
12:03 pm
TnGelding,
Obvious not only were you privates neutered, so was your brain! Clinton accomplished absolutely nothing in the White House. He simply road the economic wave that followed 12 years of lower taxes. Even then it took a conservative congress to balance the budget with the “contract with America.”
It was absolutely the liberal congress that followed that encouraged home ownership for blacks by demanding interest only loans, negative amortization and no down payments. Liberals demanded and encourage the underlying principle they foster that is now the culprit of the housing disaster–”as your Pimps, we will make it easy for you and you can later just walk away from the responsibility and we’ll get it back from the taxpayers. Just keep voting me in and I’ll get you free housing and all the chicken you can eat…free!”
Zoe
August 19th, 2010
12:04 pm
This page http://jobs.trovit.com/jobs/georgia has 83,559 jobs from over the web…don’t give up people!! There ARE jobs out there!
Real American
August 19th, 2010
12:38 pm
Larry you and the tea party klansman represent what wrong with america, today, blaming blacks and other races for your misery, I know plenty of whites that could not afford their home and lost it during this crisis.
You and the uneducated Beck and Hannity I can tell never spend 1 day in college, You represent that part of the trailor that got left out by upper scales whites now you are mad.
Comrade Obama
August 19th, 2010
12:53 pm
Fear not my people. My government will take care of everything.
Mishap
August 19th, 2010
1:00 pm
No one was watching the hen house during the 2000’s housing boom. Bush Jr. was more than happy to tout housing numbers and use inflated GDP generated by ultra low fed rates to push for re-election. The left was more than happy to hand homes to the poor since appreciation lifted many out of relative poverty and made everyone feel good about themselves. The housing boom made plenty on the right rich(er) and Wall St. was more than happy to slice/dice those crappy mortgages to make their annual bonus fatter.
Did a lot of people w/ atrocious credit get houses they couldn’t afford? Of course but if someone told you that you could own your home for $499/mon which would be less than rent, wouldn’t you? For every poor schlub taking on a Option ARM subprime loan to own the American dream there was an investor willing to buy the mortgage backed bond b/c it had higher yields than T-Bills. Don’t forget all those flippers (plenty of lily white Americans w/ plenty of cash and great credit) that leveraged themselves to the hilt in get rich quick schemes where a No Doc loan was a fast way around anyone asking why they had 16 homes w/o equity in any of them. The highest default rates in the country are still in the high end homes (mortgage > $1M -> 1 in 7 homes delinquent) which shows plenty of people that could afford far cheaper homes chose to instead indulge themselves.
Lets face it everyone from Wall St. big shots, mortgage brokers/underwriters, real estate agents, complicit Congress (on both sides), an inattentive Fed, wannabe Trump types, working poor, and even mutual fund investors were a part of this blow up. It’s not something that Obama or the Dems created since trading mortgage backed securities only started in the ’80’s (Read Liar’s Poker) and became commonplace when big banks were allowed in the action in the late ’90’s(repeal of Glass-Steagall which Clinton signed as a deregulation bill- thanks Phil Gramm) just at the tail of the dot com boom. Basically, big banks stacked the cards in their favor and the big deregulation push aligned all risks toward housing growth w/o anyone looking at the downside risk.
Emory Texan class of '09
August 19th, 2010
2:24 pm
Everyone, stop taking statements from one person that subscribes to a political ideology and blanketing the whole movement with claims of “racism”, “stupidity”, etc.
You are stereotyping, and that is exactly what is wrong with racism (the charge that you are insulting them with). Do you not realize that? Sure, some tea partiers are racists – statistically it must be so. Same with Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE. Stop the ad hominem attacks and actually LISTEN to each other. Stop playing “gotcha politics” and focus on the intent of the message. We will all be better of for it.
It's Working!!!!
August 19th, 2010
2:27 pm
YES!!!! The jobless rate is down!!!! YES!!!! Those trillions in bailouts of AIG, Goldman Sachs and GM are finally paying off! Those economists in DC are brilliant!!!!! YES!!!!!
scott
August 19th, 2010
2:41 pm
larry..you anger is misguided,and wrong…STOP LISTENING TO BECK,HANNITY AND LIMBAUGH…quit blaming blacks for you frusteration..thats what BECK,HANNITY LIMBAUGH DEPEND ON TO GET RICHER YOUR MISLEAD ANGER..trust me they dont care about your struggles…as a white american 8 friends all white…. blacks were,nt the only ones that got those interest only loans6 of my white neighbors did that and lost thier homes..blacks few if any were able to get those type of loans..i work in the mortgage industry and trust me it was whites demanding those loans….beck ,hannity ,limbaugh are the most dangerous men in america…they will eventually cause a race and class war with thier false dribble!!!
shadow7071
August 19th, 2010
4:12 pm
As I’ve commented here many times… the problem is jobs and to be more specific it is the lack of jobs that has driven down the economy. NOT SUB-PRIME LOANS. We’re in a perfect economic storm that began with the off-shoring of American jobs coupled with a economic boom in housing and consumer spending. Here are the facts: as we were buying houses, furnishings, cars, fashions, and exotic vacations Wall street was forcing businesses to cut costs. Businesses were forcing themselves to cut costs. The only way they could cut costs was to move their manufacturing operations off-shore. This business strategy did not start with a big wave rather it began as a trickle. A few notable companies started to off-shore manufacturing. Some people were alarmed and warned against this trend. But government and academia backed businesses decision by arguing and predicting that Americans were no longer going to be the factory workers of the world. Instead, Americans were going to be “knowledge workers”. So, many bought into the argument and business accelerated their off-shoring of operations. The problems started when this off-shoring of jobs reached the critical point when the magnitude of displaced workers began to have a significant impact on the economy (i.e., default on credit cards, default of mortgages, cutting back on spending and etc.). (And, the promised knowledge worker jobs did not materialize). When this occurred it set off panic and fear in the economy which drove many businesses to cut back even further and laying off even more employees. This is where we are now and this is where we’ll be until we take significant steps to turn around this trend of off-shoring and begin to rebuild America’s economy. As for the sub-prime loans. Sure, these people can’t pay their mortgages because they don’t have jobs to earn the income needed to pay the mortgages. Those jobs have been off-shored. But for government, wall street, big business and big finance these people are now serving the role of scapegoat. Yes, government, wall street, business and and big investors are not going to come forward and admit they screwed up the economy by destroying American jobs. No, they’re going to find a scapegoat and these folks who have had to default on their homes are the scapegoats.
A.S.Mathew
August 19th, 2010
4:15 pm
Can we start a campaign to buy American-made products. We may get only food items as American
made, and may not find any clothing. But, through a united effort, we can warn the stores to stock
U.S. products. It may not happen overnight, but some day, we can win the war.
tired of no job
August 19th, 2010
5:39 pm
shadow7071 -Very well stated. I agree with you 100%, and please folks get off the black/white issue, it is not about that, it is about survival no matter what your color is, lets be more intelligent than that, please.
tired of no job
August 19th, 2010
5:40 pm
BECK,HANNITY AND LIMBAUGH, I don’t care about these guys, I want a job!!!!