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China's economic promises focus on creating jobs

courtesy of The Associated Press

BEIJING — Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged to extend job-creation programs and keep bank-credit flowing as Beijing tries to keep its factories humming and its workers employed at a time of growing trade tensions with the West.

Although the Chinese action is helping to keep the world's economy afloat, the budget plan Wen outlined Friday showed that Beijing is sticking with a course that has driven exports and piled up huge foreign exchange reserves rather than buy up more products made outside China....

...the government would invest 43.3 billion yuan to stimulate employment, and extend for another year a program that exempts employers from making required social security contributions on behalf of their workers. He said the program aimed to create jobs for more than 9 million people entering the urban work force and keep unemployment below 4.6 percent. The official rate is currently 4.2 percent, although that only includes registered urban job losses and the actual figure is estimated at up to double that...

is this another example of communist countries trying desperately to hold to principles of Marxism while becoming more capitalisitic?

Short-term hope, long-term despair

by CNN staff writer David Goldman

[recent]jobs report showed some glimmers of a recovery but if you're among the 8.8 million Americans still unemployed after nearly four months, you may have been left scratching your head.

"Whether you say the jobs market is improving or getting worse, there are people who will say you're crazy," said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute. "That's because there are two Americas, and they're both right."

Of the 8.8 million who have been unemployed for more than 3-1/2 months, there are 3.5 million more now than there were at this point last year. And for this group, the job market is looking grimmer by the day. According to the Labor Department, a stunning 58.9% of jobless Americans have now been unemployed for more than 15 weeks -- an all-time high.

On the other hand, the job market is rapidly improving for those who have been unemployed for less than 3-1/2 months. There are 1.2 million fewer Americans who have been unemployed for under 15 weeks, compared with this time last year. The 41.1% who have been out of work for fifteen weeks or less marks a record low.

One caveat. Some of those who have dropped out of the under-15-week group may still be out of work, putting them into the longer-term unemployed group.

A tale of two job markets

A closer look at the numbers helps paint a picture of the increasingly fractured job market.

Economists say most of the workers who have been out of a job for more than 15 weeks include those in slow-to-recover industries like construction, finance and manufacturing. Unfortunately for them, those businesses will likely be the last to recover.

"There is simply no business demand for construction workers or the guys writing credit-default swaps and derivatives," said Achuthan. "The economy, going forward, doesn't want them."

For those who can't find work in their fields but are able to get training or adapt their skills to new endeavors, there is a silver lining: temporary, introductory-level jobs are one of the fastest-growing sectors. Nearly 100,000 temporary positions have been created in the first two months of 2010 alone.

"The huge trend of temporary hiring will continue for a while, which is good for people looking for just about anything," said Roberts. "Now people are just happy to have any job."

Just another example of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. If we do not do something soon about this trend, allowing businesses to get bigger and exert more and more control over our lives, we will find ourselves in a third-world country.

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