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Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

Last week’s jobs report confirms what I’ve been saying for quite a while now—the US employment outlook appears extremely weak and will improve only marginally.

By Jonathan D. Miller | Updated on January 11, 2011

Last week’s jobs report confirms what I’ve been saying for quite a while now—the U.S. employment outlook appears extremely weak and will improve only marginally. More economists are now recognizing what they call “structural” changes to the U.S. economy—how we have trouble competing against lower cost competitor countries all over the world and especially in Asia. According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly 40% of workers recently finding new jobs have taken 20% less in compensation than their former jobs. Beggars can’t be choosers, but that’s the plight of more and more Americans.

Tellingly, our dominant major multinational corporations lead the way in off-shoring more of their operations outside the US The profits come back here, the top executives make off like bandits, but rank-and-file workers have less job security and see overall wage/benefit levels stagnate or shrink. Big companies show no signs of picking up the hiring slack despite sitting on trillions of dollars in capital and strong profits—they make more money by hiring fewer US employees, and that means bigger bonuses for their executive teams.

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