Why They Can’t Get Jobs

Gregory J. Welborn

This has been a week rich with events worthy of commentary.  Many of them are sad beyond comprehension and as of this writing just too close to warrant political commentary.  I refer, of course, to the second attack on Fort Hood, so let me simply offer my prayers for recovery for those who were wounded and for peace for those who lost a loved one.  I offer nothing for the shooter.

With that acknowledgement, let me address the topic I did choose.  Admittedly, I did so because my son is directly affected: my very qualified and very motivated son (please pardon a father’s pride) is having a tough time finding a job, or an internship, even a non-paying internship.  Yes, he’s willing to work hard for free and still can’t find any takers.  He is not alone, and so I want to address why they can’t find jobs.

Let’s move away from my son’s anecdotal experience.  Despite the recent White House press conference showcasing a beaming President claiming success in his signature legislation and pointing to signs visible only to him of a strong recovery, all is not well in the American job market.  According to the Wall Street Journal, today, 57 months after the end of the great recession and 32months after real GDP surpassed its previous high, fewer people have jobs than in December of 2007.

What employment recapture has occurred has not been at the same economic level as the jobs lost.  In other words, a job lost at $30,000 per year is not equal to a job regained at $20,000.  There’s more to this than just the head count of who’s employed, although there are still many millions of people who want jobs and can’t find them.

One of the most telling statistics is that median household income now stands 4.4% lower than when the great recession ended.  We need to let that sink in!  The recession is over, economic growth has resumed, has surpassed where it was before the damn thing was broken, and yet, median income has continued to fall. 

The President’s defenders, and all those left of center, will point to the fact that corporate profits have risen to postwar highs while total compensation has fallen to its lowest level in 50+ years.  Clearly, they say, Obama’s policies have healed the economy; it’s the greedy corporate profiteers who have chosen to not share the wealth.  It’s their fault people aren’t being hired and that family income is down.

It’s a soothing theory, but then any theory with a convenient scapegoat will ease the pain and deflect anger from where it rightly belongs – on policy makers in D.C.  If greedy corporate fat cats have decided to cheat the workers as the economy recovers, why didn’t they do it earlier?  Why wait til 2011, or 2012, or 2013 to fire the little guy?  Why didn’t they do it in 2007, or 2006 when the political fallout would have been less?  This isn’t a flippant question.  If fat cats simply want to take more money, doesn’t it stand to reason they would have done so during good times when the terminations would have received less scrutiny?

Perhaps, it’s not unbridled greed or pure spite which motivates them.  Perhaps the cost and uncertainty of employment has increased to the point where it is eminently logical to use technology instead of human labor to accomplish the job at hand. 

Every one of us – white collar, blue collar, management or labor – is motivated to act in our own best interest.  If a worker can do a job more economically than a machine, business owners will hire the worker.  But if the government steps in and mandates an increase in the minimum wage – as Obama announced last week – above what the worker actually produces and/or above the level of what a machine costs to do the job, then the machine will get the job.  That’s not mean, spiteful or greedy.  It’s common sense.

Add to Obama’s promise to use executive order to raise the minimum wage 39% the fact that Obamacare’s health insurance tax is equivalent to the entire gross income of McDonalds Corporation, and it shouldn’t be any wonder at all that businesses are very, very cautious about hiring more workers.

So, we return to my son, your children, and perhaps a few of you dads and moms also looking for jobs.  It’s not the employer’s fault.  My son would take an internship for free, but several firms have told him they’re afraid of being sued for not paying the minimum wage. The reason Americans can’t get jobs is because the wizard in the White House has made it too expensive to hire them.  It’s not greed on Wall Street; it’s stupidity in Washington.

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Gregory J. Welborn is a freelance writer and has spoken to several civic and religious organizations on cultural and moral issues.  He lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 3 children and is active in the community.  He can be reached [email protected]

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