Two years into a fitful recovery, unemployed Americans are getting painfully accustomed to the notion that it will take years to bring back the jobs eviscerated by the financial crisis.
In some regions, those years are in danger of turning into a decade. According to a report to be released Monday, nearly 50 metropolitan regions ”” or more than one out of seven ”” are unlikely to bring back all the jobs lost in the recession until after 2020.
Among those areas are Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio; Detroit; Reno, Nev.; and Atlantic City, according to the report commissioned by the United States Conference of Mayors.
Detroit, which lost 323,400 jobs during the recession, and Reno, which lost 36,000 jobs, are not expected to regain all of those positions until after 2021.
[i]Two years into a fitful recovery[/i]
Recovery of what? The only thing that has grown over the last three years is government; at all levels. That may change at the state/local levels as the Stimulus slush funds run out, but for people in the real world, there has been NO recovery.
And speaking of government, we need to take a look at the intrusion of government regulations into the now virtually non-existent youth summer job market. It is just about [i]impossible[/i] for high schoolers…..particularly those in the 16 to 18 year age bracket…..to find summer work, and this is in part due to excessive regulations designed to “protect kids.” It used to be easy for them to find summertime and after-school work, but not anymore. Where once they were able to work, if they wanted to, they are now effectively barred from working, and as a result, they’re bored, and very often end up in trouble with the law.
Businesses now use computer ‘interviews’ without ever seeing the applicant in person; often with the result being that “you don’t meet our qualifications,” with the applicant being required to answer 50 to 80 questions designed to weed out 99.9% of everyone applying for a job. Something about “company standards,” I believe. So is it any wonder that kids are discouraged, disgusted with the system, and often rebellious to the point where idle teens get into trouble with the Law? And it’s not just teens who get into trouble.
And I forgot to add that those businesses who use the Internet for conducting online job interviews seldom if ever let the unuccessful applicants know the reasons why they “don’t meet our qualifications,” and therefore, the applicants don’t know where or how to improve their chances of ever being hired. That has to change.