Two jobs articles caught my attention today:
CBS MarketWatch: Chicago Fed Chief Puzzled at Jobless Recovery
AP/Yahoo News: The share of the U.S. population working or actively seeking a job has fallen to 65.8 percent, the lowest level in 16 years.
Chicago Fed Chief Puzzled at Jobless Recovery
The head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago says he's baffled that the U.S. recession ended more than two years ago and yet few companies are hiring.
"The most prominent puzzle we face now is the so-called jobless recovery," Michael Moskow said, according to remarks prepared for delivery Thursday to a business group at Ohio's University of Dayton.
"To be sure, we have seen signs of improvement in labor markets during recent months," Moskow added. "But the economy needs to create between 100,000 and 150,000 jobs per month just to keep pace with population growth."
A tepid 21,000 new jobs were created in February. An estimated 122,000 jobs were added to the nation's payrolls in March, according to a poll of economists conducted by CBS MarketWatch. The Labor Department is expected to report results on Friday morning before the stock market opens.
Unemployed Dropping Out of Labor Pool
The share of the U.S. population working or actively seeking a job has fallen to 65.9 percent, the lowest level in 16 years. Economists say the weak jobs market is causing people to give up their searches and drop out of the labor pool at an unusual pace -- holding down the unemployment rate, which was 5.6 percent in February. March numbers will be released on Friday.
Well done Bush! Our schools are falling apart and class are being cut. He's going backwards on energy policy. And now labor market participation is at its lowest in 16 years.
Count me as one of those who's dropped out of the labor pool. And the only answer I have for the poor puzzled Fed chief is that companies are getting better at treating their employees like paper towels, while employees continue to let them.
One question for discussion - why the hell isn't your company hiring?
Another question - why isn't Bush twisting some CEO's arms just to get some temporary hiring gains?