President's Jobs Council Says Workers Are The Reason They're Jobless

[Better Believe It]

President's Jobs Council Says Workers Are The Reason They're Jobless: It Tells Obama That More Training Will Cut The Unemployment Rate
By Richard McCormack
June 20, 2011

A good portion of unemployment in the United States is being caused by workers themselves, according to President Obama's Jobs and Competitiveness Council headed by General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt. The problem is not so much the shortage of jobs, but a shortage of trained workers, engineers and skilled foreign immigrants who could fill the few jobs that might exist, Jobs Council members told President Obama on June 13.

This is especially true in the manufacturing sector, which has lost 5 million jobs over the past decade. The Jobs and Competitiveness Council's remedy for this problem: increase training in CNC machining and advanced production. The Council's plan would generate a grand total of 2,000 jobs in the first year. It is estimated that the country needs to generate 21 million jobs to get to full employment.

The Jobs and Competitiveness Council is recommending that the federal government start a pilot project with technical colleges nationwide. If the pilot program spreads to a half a dozen states, then the Jobs Council says the number of jobs created in the second year would be 4,000.

Another jobs prescription presented to Obama during the meeting was increasing immigration of foreigners with graduate degrees and Ph.Ds. The Obama administration was asked to adopt a "premium processing" system for educated foreigners so that they could quickly receive Green Cards. The administration should also support legislation that would staple a Green Card to every foreigner receiving a Ph.D. in the sciences and engineering from a U.S. university. "The impact on jobs is big," said Paul Otellini, President and CEO of Intel Corp. "Every one of these people we can bring into the workforce -- their skill sets, patents, new companies -- creates five jobs around them, so for every one we bring in we get five jobs. This is a big deal."

There was no discussion on how to create more jobs for American engineers, computer scientists, programmers and other technology specialists who are currently unemployed.

Read the full article at:

http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/11/0620/jobscouncil.html

Jobs and Competitiveness Council Subcommittee Members

Entrepreneurship

Steve Case, Chairman and CEO, Revolution; Chairman, Startup America Partnership
John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Dick Parsons, Chairman, Citigroup
Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook
Robert Wolf, Chairman, UBS Americas
Austan Goolsbee, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers

Innovation and Biotechnology Sector

Mark Gallogly, Cofounder and Managing Principal, Centerbridge Partners
A.G. Lafley, Former Chairman and CEO, Procter & Gamble
Eric Lander, Director, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; Co-Chair, PCAST
Antonio Perez, Chairman and CEO, Eastman Kodak Corp.
Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President
Mike Strautmanis, Counselor to the Senior Advisor for Strategic Engagement

Energy Innovation and Smartgrid

Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE
Lewis Hay, Chairman and CEO of NextEra Energy
Gary Kelly, Chairman, President, and CEO of Southwest Airlines
Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast
Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke

Workforce Training and Skills

Roger Ferguson, President and CEO of TIAA-CREF
Joseph Hansen, International President of UFCW
Monica Lozano, CEO of impreMEDIA
Darlene Miller, Pres. and CEO of Permac Industries
Penny Pritzker, CEO of Pritzker Realty Group
Melody Barnes, Dir. of the Domestic Policy Council
Don Graves, Department of Treasury

Manufacturing

Ellen Kullman, Chair and CEO, DuPont
Paul Otellini, President and CEO, Intel Corporation
Matt Rose, Chairman and CEO, BNSF Railway
Laura Tyson, S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
Fred Hochberg, Chairman and President, Export-Import Bank of the United States
Karen Mills, Administrator, SBA


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Obama's Jobs Council, Stacked with Business Honchos, Offers Nothing But Political Theater
The administration's latest proposals flow from a fundamental misdiagnosis of the jobs problem we face.
By John Schmitt
July 5, 2011

In the run-up to his most recent State of the Union address, President Obama announced a "President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness" as part of efforts to demonstrate his laser-like focus on jobs. In an interim report in mid-June, the council made a set of "fast-action" recommendations, which the president trumpeted in a set-piece economic speech at a high-tech manufacturing facility in North Carolina.

We have over 14 million unemployed and almost 25 million "underemployed" workers because employers have no markets for their goods and services --and therefore no need for workers to produce them. The bursting of the housing bubble wreaked havoc on family finances, leading Americans to cut back their spending. In a chain reaction, businesses cut hiring and investment, and the economy went into a tailspin. The only thing that kept the economy from falling off a cliff were the efforts of the federal government to make up for part of the catastrophic drop in demand.

Yet the collapse in demand does not feature at all in the Jobs Council's analysis or in any of its recommendations. Instead, the council mostly places the blame for the lack of jobs on workers and the government. Workers lack the skills for advanced manufacturing jobs, health-care positions and engineering jobs. The government impedes job creation by putting "red tape" in the way of construction and infrastructure projects, by blocking entrepreneurs from immigrating to the United States and by making life difficult for small businesses seeking financing or access to foreign markets.

The scuttlebutt in policy circles is that the Jobs Council is just a bone the Obama administration has thrown to its business critics. Twenty-two of the 26 members are business leaders taken from the highest echelons of business. The composition of the council and the timidity of its recommendations certainly supports the view of the council as a sop.

Read the full article at:

http://www.alternet.org/economy/151524/obama%27s_jobs_council%2C_stacked_with_business_honchos%2C_offers_nothing_but_political_theater__/?page=entire

[Starry Messenger]

1. Bullfuckingshit.

[provis99]

2. yep. Blame the workers.

Obviously, American workers prefer to be on unemployment than to have good jobs.:sarcasm:

[Brickbat]

3. Fucking disgusting.

If anyone puts forward this "jobs council" as a bluelink "success" or "mark of progress," I will laugh my ass off.

[ipaint]

4. That's nasty.

Stupid, evil elites.

[jimmyflint]

26. +1

[DJ13]

5. Are we SURE we dont have a Republican administration?

[Dept of Beer]

28. It makes VP Quale's competitiveness council of the 1980s

look downright reasonable by comparison.

[gkhouston]

6. Are these the same people who concluded that trees cause air pollution? n/t

[ProSense]

7. Why isn't

Richard Trumka listed?

[bullwinkle428]

22. Neat trick - one token liberal, kind of like the Catfood Commission,

where Jan Schakowsky was grossly outnumbered by the fat-cat Elite Republican Guard.

[Dept of Beer]

31. That's not really the question. The question is do you actually believe that this

group has any credibility?

Do you believe their recommendations?


Well?

[Odin2005]

46. Warning, this poster is a shill.

[dkf]

8. Unemployment for people with a bachelors degree or higher is 4.4%

If full employment is 5%, then college educated individuals are at full employment.

The problem is too large a supply of workers with less than a college education whose jobs are being either made obsolete by productivity or which can be done by any Chinese laborer or illegal immigrant.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t04.htm

[Better Believe It]

10. There are five qualified applicants for every job that becomes available.

The problem is not enough jobs, not too few qualified workers.

[dkf]

15. Yeah for a McJob right?

It's probably true that the reason the stats are so low for those with bachelors degrees is they are even taking McJobs so those who would be qualified for one can't even get it.

[Erose999]

40. I'm hiring an assistant at work. There are at least 60 applicants in the pool right now. Out of the

60 there are probably 15 or 20 who are qualified. There are probably 10 who are overqualified with Masters' degrees and Ph.D's.

This is an entry level job that only requires 2 years of college and a little library experience.

[gkhouston]

12. All of the people I know who are unemployed have bachelor's

degrees and some have graduate degrees. All of them had jobs when Obama took office.

[dkf]

18. My brothers friends were the same, but they've all found jobs again.

It must be your area? Personally I don't know a single person who got laid off due to the recession. But we didn't have very high unemployment here either.

[gkhouston]

21. No, some of them are in other states. n/t

[hobbit709]

36. What wonderful part of the world do you live in?

where there is low unemployment and plenty of good paying jobs.

[dkf]

43. Hawaii. 6.0%.

But I've been seeing help wanted signs at a whole lot of retailers.

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. And how many of those are grossly underemployed?

I know a lawyer that works the cosmetics counter at Dillards and another that drives a UPS truck.

[dkf]

20. Yup that is what I was wondering. Probably true.

[KT2000]

9. GE is the father of

sending American jobs overseas. Jack Welch trained a whole generation of managers through his books and their idol worship.
They also should look at the private equity/holding company friends and ask them to submit the true number of jobs they have shit down in the US and sent overseas.
God these people make me sick.

[Skittles]

11. fucking CLUELESS

many unemployed people have EXCELLENT SKILLS - but their jobs are in INDIA and CHINA

[FreakinDJ]

13. CNCs can not compete with UNFair Trade

shit I have 1 sitting idle right now

[Hydra]

14. WOW

The BS is simply breathtaking...we have a real unemployment of 16.2%, and we want to bring more green cards in to take the best positions?

...You know what? I need to move to India and then migrate back here. I have a better chance of getting a real job that way.

[indurancevile]

17. unbelievable.

[Coyote_Bandit]

19. Blame the unemployed

Once again you can color me unimpressed.

[canoeist52]

23. I know plenty of qualified CNC machinists who were laid off

after 35 yrs. of service, when the company they worked for was bought out by a group who sold it out for a quick profit. These people, with over 25 yrs. experience, will not be hired now because they're over 50 yrs old -not because they're un-trained or under qualified.

Who does this council think they're fooling?

[eShirl]

47. +1

[Initech]

24. It's official: we live in the Matrix.

[socialist_n_TN]

49. Nah, not the Matrix......

It's just the dictatorship of capital with the pretense gone.

[lib2DaBone]

25. You don't need a masters degree to load trucks... or work a shovel..

End the tax breaks that REWARD and ENCOURAGE companies to go offshore.

This deficit smokescreen is a travesty. They should be talking about jobs... but not one mention from these grifters and con artists in Washington.

[Dept of Beer]

27. "skilled foreign immigrants who could fill the few jobs that might exist"

What a bunch of fuckers. Does anybody here have to really wonder why many of us are so fucking angry?

[gkhouston]

29. Are they *trying* to start a riot?

:wtf:

[Dept of Beer]

32. If we were to do that then there is the perfect excuse

for them to enact martial law.

[Stinky The Clown]

30. Oferkrissakes can they just shut the fuck up? WHAT FUCKING JOBS???????????

[Elwood P Dowd]

33. Jobs Council overloaded with the very people who outsourced millions of jobs.

Even Laura Tyson is a member of this shipwreck. Remember her on all the cable shows during the Clinton years proclaiming that NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and all that wonderful outsourcing would create millions of new jobs and reduce our growing trade deficit? Just give these agreements 10-15 years, and the American people would love the fact that shipping millions of jobs out of the country would somehow give us a workers paradise. This is the type of complete idiot that Obama, like Clinton, listens to on a daily basis. After the policies that the Tyson's of the world promoted ended up trashing our economy and destroying our jobs, they had to blame someone. After all, these people are CEOs and PHDs. We are just stupid workers, and it's all our fault.

[Better Believe It]

35. Obama found one token labor union official to serve on this so-called jobs council

He's the head of the UFCW.

[amborin]

34. kr

[HughBeaumont]

37. Yes, a shortage of workers who DON'T demand that pesky "living wage" thing.

I mean, it's not like they have necessities to pay for or an ever-rising cost of living to keep up with or anything. Sheeeeeesh.

This is what happens when you don't control (or are even part of) the message.

[somone]

38. I'm so glad he didn't say that the unemployed need to pray harder

[nc4bo]

39. This headline followed by your username had me in stitches. Perfect fit.

It really did believe it or not :rofl:

How absurd. Crazy talk.

This so called Jobs Council analysis nearly had me passed out on the floor :rofl: at the absurdity of it all.

[Better Believe It]

42. Crazy talk indeed! Better believe it!

[Ganja Ninja]

41. Well here's some place where we can save the government money.

Are they trying to say that Chinese workers are better trained for assembly line work than American's? Of course American's aren't very well trained for factory work. Factories have to hire someone before they can train them.

[Safetykitten]

44. No...we just like the cheaper folks thankyou. More Visas please!

[Odin2005]

45. Obama is so out of touch with Main Street Reality that he's at risk of floating off into space.

:puke:

Remind me never to trust anyone who taught at the University of Chicago.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

48. What planet are they orbiting?

(Frantically waving my Juris Doctor in the air.)
(Hubby frantically waving his B.S. and M.S. in math/physics in the air.)

We both lost decent jobs in the Clinton years. Him, 1993, me 1996.

[fascisthunter]

50. more Orwellian BS Tactics

your shit is old and it proves you are all really dumb, just programmable shills.

(directed towards the Job Council or whatever the fuck it's supposed be)

[socialist_n_TN]

51. This is part of the propaganda campaign too..........

What the dictatorship of capital is propagandizing is that the ONLY people that deserve recognition and praise are the capitalists. Whereas the people who actually DO the work are ignored or worse (like this article).

Call it the devaluation of the working class. And they're trying to sell this propaganda TO the working class.