4
Chronic high unemployment in the U.S. and Europe
Unemployed workers wait outside a government job center in Madrid.
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
KAI RYSSDAL: We started today with Europe and its debt problem. We'll get the second half of the broadcast rolling with Europe and its jobs problem.
Bad as it's been here, long-term unemployment's been a much bigger issue in Europe -- more people out of work for more time, depending on where you live. From the European Desk, Marketplace's Stephen Beard reports.
STEPHEN BEARD: No one visiting Retiro Park in Central Madrid, Spain would think the Europeans could teach the U.S. anything about curbing unemployment. The park is full of young, jobless men. In this country 43 percent of the under 30s are unemployed, and after two or three years out of work some, like Diego Hernandez and Omid Mohsani, are losing hope.
DIEGO HERNANDEZ: We can't dream about house, about many things, not about buy a car or something like that.
OMID MOHSANI: Right now it's really, really, really difficult to find a job here. And I go every day, every day I go out from my house I go to many, many, many place to ask about a job but no, nothing.
But Spain is Europe's worst employment black spot. Germany, Britain, all of Scandinavia, and the Netherlands are doing somewhat better than the U.S. The reason, says David Grubb of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, comes down to unemployment pay. He says America's decision to extend the benefit period from 26 to 99 weeks helps to account for the U.S.'s stubbornly high unemployment rate.
DAVID GRUBB: Many European countries have experienced this that when benefit systems are increased, benefits are made more generous, in various different ways, unemployment goes up.
It goes up, he says, because the unemployed have less incentive to get back to work as soon as possible.
John Philpott is with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in London.
JOHN PHILPOTT: I think there are lessons for the U.S. to learn in terms of benefits and labor market program policies.
Philpott says what matters are the conditions attached to the benefits. Some European countries -- Germany, the Netherlands and others -- offer much more generous unemployment pay than the U.S. and for longer, but they have a lower unemployment rate because they constantly pester and cajole and, if necessary, retrain the unemployed back into jobs.
PHILPOTT: The Danes also invest a lot in jobs programs in order to make sure that people are helped back into work. In European jargon it's called "Flexecurity."
There is an irony here: throughout the last decade the U.S. lectured Europe on the merits of deregulation and labor market flexibility. The motto was: if it is easier to fire, it will be easier to hire. But that's now backfired on American workers, and also explains America's high unemployment.
Ian Brinkley of the Work Foundation.
IAN BRINKLEY: American employers shed labor very rapidly and very quickly. In Germany and the U.K. they didn't. They held on to labor much more than we would have thought they would have done given the severity of the downturn.
Of course when the U.S. economy bounces back, U.S. business will no doubt be snapping up workers again. And there will be much less need for jobs programs and other such European-style initiatives. But the bounce back doesn't seem imminent. And the longer people are jobless, the harder it is to get them back to work, as the Europeans -- and especially the Spanish -- know only too well.
At the European Desk in London, I'm Stephen Beard for Marketplace.
The issue of H2 visas certainly deserves mention, because over the last thirty years, companies have been insourcing cheaper labor as fast as they have been outsourcing production. I find it fairly inconsistent and narrow in reasoning that the traditional “liberal†position has always been to open up our borders; to me, this feeds right into Corporate America’s goal of unimpeded wage arbitrage. Other important factors in repressing labor and eliminating decent jobs are the rise of temp. agencies and private employment (HR) agencies. (Some of us are old enough to remember when labor was more than a global commodity for industry to render subservient and dispensable; terms like “human resources,†and “CEO†didn’t arrive until the workforce was militarized in the eighties.) Our entire workforce is structured on providing the cheapest, smartest, fastest, most obsequious, and least organized workers employers can find, with little regard for either nationality or legality. We are truly a country of financial interests, by financial interests, and for financial interests. Businesses will argue that they have no choice but to compete; that they are under pressure from rising health care costs and rising real estate prices, but those are financial issues, not labor issues. Again, the culprit is high finance, an investor-led business model, and the globalization of finance capital, which seeks to rule without the imposition of any democratic governmental interference.
The argument that unemployment insurance might be retarding the motivation to work is yet another attack on labor, and it ignores something that could really put people to work and keep them working: tax incentives to get employers to hire, and public industries that directly compete with private industries, threatening with higher pay and higher taxes. The USPS would be a perfect example (note that UPS is union; not only has “crowding out†not occurred, competition has buoyed wages), except that Republicans are now going after that industry with the same zeal as they have public education and S.S.). Ironically, if unemployment benefit programs were more generous, as your guest pointed out is the case in Denmark (and in Canada, where I have lived), and coupled with pro-labor policies rather than pro-business policies, people would find work much more quickly—and keep it. Consider California: Only 39% of those who apply for unemployment benefits qualify, and the benefit period is only six months, with eligibility determined by wages earned in the quarter beginning one year previous to the application date. If you haven’t worked in that quarter; you’re not eligible. If you quit, you’re not eligible. If a termination is considered justifiable (and you may have to go to a hearing to prove that it was not), you’re not eligible. Employers are aware that their contribution rates will go up if an employee is eligible, and so they may very well go about making life so miserable for an employee that they quit rather than claim a lay-off. In Canada, after working for “x†number of months, you are eligible, in any case. Period. Oddly enough, if people knew that they had that sort of social safety net available (and complete with a PUBLIC employment service to aid in finding both work and retraining), they would be more inclined to take a chance on an employer, and employers would be more inclined to keep them, knowing that employees had other options available, apart from volunteered slavery.
I hear you talking about American unemployment and techniques for reducing it, but I know a simple strategy that you have not mentioned - perhaps because it is politically incorrect to talk about it. Simply reduce the importation of foreign workers!!! We take in about 150,000 foreign workers per month. Cutting this number down can only help American workers. It only takes a phone call from Obama to Hillary at State - please issue fewer work visas. A no-brainer. Don't you agree?
There are plenty of job opportunities in the US, but not for all, only for some: if you have an H1-B visa or if you have many years of full-time work experience:
However, there are not professional job opportunities if you don't have strong connections inside "the company/start-up", you are a US citizen or legal resident, and meet one or more of the following:
(Good luck finding a job in these cases)
- you are a new graduate ( If you want an internship most if not all companies require that you must be enrolled in a Master's degree program)
- you only have few years of experience.
- you are a minority. (Black, Latino etc..)
- you are in the Mid 30s/40s or older
- you did not graduate from a Top Engineering school, especially (ie: MIT, Berkeley, Standford)
All companies claim to have equal opportunity employment, but the reality is that most if not all should state the reality which is: We are NOT an Equal Opportunity Employer and do NOT value diversity.
Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, HP, etc should all have their status changed to foreign companies since they operate their headquarters and the majority of their employees overseas...
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20092738-266/google-motorola-marriage-...
This is the current reality in the USA:
Top 100 H1B Visa Sponsors -2011 H1B Visa Report:
http://www.myvisajobs.com/Reports/Top-Visa-Sponsor-2011.aspx
Rank H1B Visa Sponsor H1B Visa Petitions Average Salary
1 Microsoft 2,505 $96,497
2 IBM 1,263 $80,908
11 Intel 404 $95,714
14 Oracle 376 $104,080
16 Google 355 $103,129
17 Hewlett Packard 340 $99,344
21 Yahoo 308 $105,112
26 Amazon com 255 $99,459
27 Motorola 249 $95,861
45 Apple 175 $110,987
47 Cisco Systems 169 $117,662
84 SAP America 102 $105,498
91 PayPal 98 $105,008
3 Facebook 86 Sign In
2011 H1B Visa Sponsor by Occupation: Computer Software Engineers:
http://www.myvisajobs.com/Computer-Software-Engineers,-Applications-11OC...
Twenty States With the Most Workplace Discrimination:
http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20110728/twenty-states-with-th...
How to Tell Whether Your Boss Plans to Replace You with an H1B Immigrant Worker:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/06/h1b_visa.php
Many With New College Degree Find the Job Market Humbling:
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/economy/19grads.html
Reverse Offshoring? Or Yet More Evidence of Corporate America's Squeeze on Workers?
http://www.alternet.org/environment/151074/reverse_offshoring_or_yet_mor...
Are American Engineers in Short Supply?
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/mar/09/citylights1-american-engi...
Why the Anti-H-1B Argument Isn't Being Taken Seriously:
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/tennant/why-the-anti-h-1b-argumen...
Workplace Discrimination Charges at Record High:
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/workplace-discrimination-charges-a...
Racial stereotypes are embedded in our culture:
http://www.troymedia.com/2010/08/04/racial-stereotypes-are-embedded-in-o...
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20089501-92/minority-entrepreneurs-set-...
➨ Important : Ù©(à¹Ì¯Í¡à¹)Û¶
Please see link below about an important Fair Employment piece of legislation Congress is planning to pass. Your support on this is imperative for everyone who has been affected / displaced by people with H1B ( H-1b visas), or the unemployed, or the ones who do not have a solid full-time employment history in their resume. H1B visas are given to people from other countries (most times unqualified) to come to the US and work here allowing US companies to hire this group of people instead of US legal residents and citizens causing our unemployment rate to continue to increase on a daily basis. Top 100 H1B Visa Sponsors -2011 Report: http://myvisajobs.com/Reports/Top-Visa-Sponsor-2011.aspx
There are thousands of talented and qualified US legal residents and citizens who have not been able to get a job as result of this and thanks to this, millions of families have not been able to achieve their goals and are living paycheck to paycheck trying to survive and have to pay expensive school loans, high interest rates from credit card companies etc.. Example of this are the following movies: "Wall Street never sleeps" and "Company Men". This is sad and unfair but it is the reality of the USA.
H.R.2501 - Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011
To prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of an individual's status or history of unemployment.
With a bill (H.R. 2501) already introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and support in Congress building to end discrimination against unemployed jobseekers.
The ‘Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011’ would make it illegal for employers and employment agencies from screening out or excluding job applicants solely because they are out of work, or have history of unemployment .
☛ Please take action, vote ✔ and share your comments at:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h2501/comments
-------------
Please see link below about an important Bill Congress is planning to pass. Your support on this is imperative for everyone who has been affected / displaced by people with H1B ( H-1b visas), or the unemployed, or the ones who do not have a solid full-time employment history in their resume.
☛ Please take action, vote ✔ and share your comments at:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h2501/comments
David Grubb and John Philpott seem to have a gross mis-understanding of why people are Un-Employed. It's because there are NO Jobs, not because they are NOT incentivized to return to their Job.
We have 20some Million out of work, and only, say, 300,000 open Jobs - many of which require very specialized training requiring months or years and CASH to acquire, not days or weeks.
The US needs a massive Infrastructure Make Work program to rebuild that which was built during the previous Great Depression and to build out the necessary 21st Century infrastructure.
If we could put 5 Million back to work ASAP, we MIGHT be able to claw our way back. But, mid-term, we need to re-Shore our Jobs that the Pirates of Wall St sent overseas.
