Reasons companies are not hiring

[True Earthling]

From the just released Philly Fed report...

Firms were asked to rank the three most important factors restraining hiring. The most frequently cited reason was the expectation of slow sales growth. Among the top three factors restraining hiring, the need to keep operating costs low (50 percent) ranked nearly as high as expected low sales growth (51 percent). Uncertainty about health-care costs, the inability to find skilled workers, and uncertainty about regulations and policies were also prominently listed.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-17/u-dot-s-dot-may-philadelphia-business-outlook-report-text

chart with responses...

http://www.businessinsider.com/details-from-the-philly-fed-manufacturing-report-2012-5#and-a-bonus-the-op-reasons-that-companies-arent-hiring-8

[snappyturtle]

1. Liars. They're feeding their profit line. eom

[sendero]

2. You don't need a survey, a crystal ball or you own .

... private Karnac to know why companies are not hiring..

There is no DEMAND. DEMAND is flat. No matter how much "investment capital" you have available, no matter ANYTHING ELSE if DEMAND is not growing there is no reason to grow your business.

This is why I laugh inside when Romney and any other Republican claims they can create jobs. Their policies will only stifle demand and make things worse.

[coalition_unwilling]

3. There's another DU thread this a.m. berating us for daring to suggest

that the recovery is faltering.

I didn't know I was 'sly' and 'opportunistic' until I read that thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002696192

[SoCalDem]

5. It sure does..

SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Jan-08-09 02:43 PM
Original message


Demand has to happen FIRST...

No matter how much "stimulus" happens, companies hire based on demand for the product or service they produce.

Employers who receive financial help from the government to stay afloat, will NOT hire new people with that money, if there is no reason to hire them.. They will use that bail-out money to keep paying themselves, shareholders & upkeep on their facility, but they will NOT just hire new people to create "stuff" that no one wants to buy..

Right now there is a GLUT of "stuff" to be bought, but there is also a serious amount of debt for "stuff" people bought a while ago (for some...years' worth of stuff), and at the same time, there is a shortage of money in those same households. Add a whopping dose of FEAR of spending, and we are where we are..

If you owned a company that made 5000 whatevers a year, and you only had orders for 1000, would you hire more people to make more whatevers?

All the fancy maneuvers will not help until the issue of consumer debt is addressed.. It remains right where it's been, lurking in the background.

If a family has $10K of credit card debt and a car loan or two, a $1000.00 check is a drop in the bucket, and probably would not even make a dent in their financial nightmare.

Until main street "gets solvent", and gets off the credit merry-go-round, there will be little demand for "stuff".

[BadgerKid]

8. Add in educational debts, too. n/t

[RC]

4. Without Living Wage Jobs, people cannot afford to buy.

With people not buying, business cannot afford to hire, or to pay a Living Wage. To break the cycle, Main Street needs to be bailed out instead of rewarding the big financial gamblers.
(Insert definition of insanity here) The fix is to do something other than what got us, U.S. in this economic mess in the first place. We are still trying to dig our way out with the same tools and plans that that were used to dig the hole in the first place. What is wrong with this picture?

[liberal N proud]

6. The reason is that companies shifted from profit to return per share as their number one goal.

They can return more to the shareholder when they have fewer people.

[meow2u3]

7. What they don't tell you: the real reason companies aren't hiring

Two words: capital strike. That's the truth behind the the report.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-s-mcelvaine/capital-strike_b_965407.html

"Job creators in America basically are on strike," House Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday. The Republican leader was openly admitting that one of the main problems with the economy and unemployment is that corporate "job creators" will continue to sit on the $2.5 trillion they have available to invest, improve the economy and provide jobs, until they are given even lower tax rates and eased government regulation.

http://jacobinmag.com/blog/2011/09/the-rights-favorite-strike/

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2012/04/24/capital-strikes-capital-flight-and-the-wholly-privatized-city/

http://often-wrong-never-in-doubt.blogspot.com/2012/04/latest-capital-strike-charts.html

[SoCalDem]

9. They are sitting on it to punish the guy who brought them all back from the brink

and has made them a tidy profit since he took over....bastards

[meow2u3]

10. That's exactly my point n/t