Only 47% of working age Americans have full time jobs

[avaistheone1]

A few more factoids on the topic:
• Today, the long term unemployed make up 42% of total unemployed. That is to say, of course, those who are actually counted as unemployed instead of "Not in the labor force".
• 43.2 million Americans receive foodstamps. That's 18.1% of all working age Americans. If they all have on average 1.5 dependents, which is probably a reasonable estimate, a full one third of the US population receives at least part of their food through this system.

Of course, these are not really stamps anymore, or any sort of paper, they’re now "food stamp debit cards". Michael Snyder at Economic Collapse dug up an ABC News article from April 2009, which deals with the fact that JPMorgan Chase is one of the main servicers of the "food stamp debit cards" (in 26 states). JPMorgan also services child support debit cards (in 15 states) and unemployment insurance cards (7 states).

Granted, some things may have changed somewhat since the article was written, but even just the very ideas that are the foundation of schemes like these are worth looking at. Because, naturally, JPMorgan does this to make a profit. Says ABC:
Take Indiana. JP Morgan gets 62 to 64 cents for each food stamp case handled monthly there. With 296,245 cases right now, that means the state is paying JP Morgan $183,672 a month on top of any other fees it collects. Indiana eliminated 100 full-time employees when it hired JP Morgan to make the program cost-neutral <..>.

But the greatest statement the article makes, and the reason ABC looked into this in the first place, is that JPMorgan outsourced its call and service centers for the "food stamp debit cards" to India. If that isn't indicative of the level to which ethics and morals have sunk, I don't know what is. You could conceivably create a lot of jobs for Americans in these service centers, which would get them off food stamps! For starters.

Another great example of the loss of morality was noted by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa at Reuters late last week:

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-23-2011-only-47-of-working-age.html



!!!!!

[tabatha]

1. That is appalling.

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. +1

[MedicalAdmin]

44. We need tax cuts immediately.

Give more money to the "job producers" immediately. I propose tax cuts to zero for the job producers and more tax credits for offshoring jobs. Pay the rich to move jobs and then after the middle class is developed in Somalia they will be able to afford American products which will lead to more jobs in the USA in a few decades.

It's very simple...

[Octafish]

2. Sounds about correct.

Serfing USA.

[Kennah]

3. It won't stay that way.

The number is rising.

[truedelphi]

4. K & R. Thank you for this information.

And the notion that we should all go back to school and get retrained is just so much more stinky smelly "hope" being thrown at us.

Inside a household where one of us holds a Master's degree, and one of us has several years in college, we don't need more education, we need jobs.

Like the article points out, simply getting American companies to have the service centers here in the USA would indeed provide some jobs to the unemployed public. It couldn't be that hard to do.

After all, look at how easy it was for the Uber Rich to get Obama and the Republicans to give a deficit increasing tax cut for the rich.

And like is said inside the OP, getting service centers re-located here would actually get people some money so they wouldn't need food stamps, County paid medical, etc.;

[OhioChick]

5. +1000 n/t

[bvar22]

6. The rich have been assured that they will never know a day of disconfort,

while the Working Class has been told that they WILL compete with 3rd World Slave Labor for their jobs.

Hello Gilded Age 2.0.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone


"By their works, you will know them."

[bobbolink]

7. 40% full-time, 60% part time... those are the stats from an employee I was speaking with

a couple of months ago, talking about his retail company he works for.

How can people survive on part-time..... minimum wage?

This is a catastrophe in the making!

[raccoon]

19. That's about the stats where I work--for a state agency.

So much for the meme that state employees have such terrific benefits.

[battycoda]

47. A lot ofpeople are hopeless.

<i>How can people survive on part-time..... minimum wage?</i>

They can't. Period.

I work for a mission that supports the un- and under-employed. We have several hundred members in my local area. People with multiple degrees, years of experience, reduced to working three or four part-time, minimum-wage jobs to keep housed and fed.

They have no medical or drug coverage. Most can barely afford heat. We had a quilt drive, because our heating fund is dry. LIHEAP? Yeah, they've got so many damn apps that they're running three months behind in processing.

The safety nets we have are not enough; there is too much need out there.

We are seeing mass depression, and I will not be surprised at all when suicides start. These people have no hope of finding employment when there are 500 applicants for one, part-time, minimum-wage job.

This country needs jobs. Jobs, jobs god-damn JOBS. Why won't the people in charge see that???

[bobbolink]

48. Everyone is singing about jobs. Everybody "sees" it.

What I ask you to do is to put yourself in the shoes of those of us who cannot work, and understand what it feels like to be totally invisible, and ignored.

Frightening. Very.

And THAT's where the suicides will begin. Because we know we are alone, and unseen.

LOOK. AT. US. TOO.

[emilyg]

8. Beyond sad.

[Catherina]

9. And more being added everyday. rec'd n/t

[lonestarnot]

12. Implosion.

[amborin]

10. K&R

[lonestarnot]

11. Fucking A that is hard to look at 42%!

[Urban Prairie]

13. I'll take unmitigatedly galling for $2000, Alex. n/t

[lonestarnot]

14. If it's not fucking time for a national strike, I don't know when it ever will be.

[lonestarnot]

15. Where's the jobs orange fuckface bawl bag ickeyleecker?

[defendandprotect]

17. J. P. Morgan - and corrupt US government -- true insanity -- !!

[Beacool]

18. I don't know what is more shocking,

that only 47% of Americans are fully employed or finding out that JPMorgan is handling the food stamp program for 26 states.

:(

"Take Indiana. JP Morgan gets 62 to 64 cents for each food stamp case handled monthly there. With 296,245 cases right now, that means the state is paying JP Morgan $183,672 a month on top of any other fees it collects. Indiana eliminated 100 full-time employees when it hired JP Morgan to make the program cost-neutral."

:puke:

[blindpig]

20. It's the capitalism...

Put simply, they have no reason to provide us with more than barely enough wages that we might survive to show up at work the next day. It ain't their business, which is to show the maximum profit for the investors.

High unemployment allows them to keep wages as low as possible, with so many scrambling for the means of sustenance. To them labor is just another commodity, a cost of production. And we have no choice, they control the means of production, we work at their pleasure. It ain't chattel slavery but is more insidious, the slave owner had an interest in preserving his investment, the capitalists has none, the reserve army of the unemployed will always fill his needs, without all of the overhead. We exist at their pleasure.

[Hydra]

26. It is more insidious

But it was what the civil war was fought over. A funny thing happened after emancipation- the former slaveowners were paying less out to get workers! Wage slavery means that the slave has to pay for all their needs, and if they don't work hard enough, they can be fired and replaced.

Mindblowing how a system we're supposedly against is totally acceptable when framed as a "choice."

[cbdo2007]

21. Wow, they sure are twisting and turning those numbers around to reach their conclusions.

[rko_24550]

22. just shocking

[MountainLaurel]

23. Can't say I'm surprised

In libraries, higher education, retail, and a lot of other fields, this has been the trend for a while.

[hayu_lol]

24. Many of the jobs in my area now being offered to applicants...

are as Independent Contractors, not permanent employees.

The depression that isn't keeps getting deeper and deeper.

[tilsammans]

25. Well, if my blood wasn't already boiling . . .

What the . . . ?

. . . JPMorgan outsourced its call and service centers for the "food stamp debit cards" to India. If that isn't indicative of the level to which ethics and morals have sunk, I don't know what is. You could conceivably create a lot of jobs for Americans in these service centers, which would get them off food stamps!

:grr: :rant: :mad: :wtf: :grr: :rant: :mad: :wtf: :grr: :rant: :mad: :wtf:

[newtothegame]

27. Alot of those probably want to work too.

Many probably don't, but the vast majority of Americans can be and want to be productive citizens, supporting their families with their own labor.

[marmar]

28. Although I suspect a lot of those paid part-time wages are doing full-time work.

nt

[DollyM]

29. first time in my life I have ever filed for Unemployment . . .

I lost my job last week, it was the first full time job with full benefits I had had in ages. I was so discouraged I just stayed in bed for a couple of days and cried my eyes out. Then got up early Monday morning and went to the Unemployment office. I got there half an hour early so I could slink in, file and slink out. I guess the next stop will be DHS to file for food stamps, another very "cheery" place to go! :(

[SoCalDem]

30. Service Economy, in action

:(

[Odin2005]

31. This is horrifying.

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. YAY! USA! USA! USA!

:patriot: :puke:

[sabrina 1]

33. I don't know how it was allowed to get this far.

I blame everyone in Congress who knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it, did nothing to make a huge campaign issue to embarrass those who are bought and paid for. AND I blame mostly, the media.

What a sad state this country had degenerated into and still we hear about how great a system Capitalism is.

[Maru Kitteh]

34. What about stay at home parents, and students? They're working age and "not in the labor force"

and there are VERY large numbers of each. What about the working-age disabled?

I find this a useless "statistic."

[pinqy]

35. Let's put it in context:

When looking at Labor Force stats, the Poulation used is the Adult Civilian non-institutional population: All those 16 years and older not in prison, mental institute or other long term health care, or in the military. That is currently 238,889,000 people. Of those, 139,206,000 (58.3%)have jobs, 13,385,000 (6.1%) are unemployed (did not work but looked for work) and 85,199,000 (35.7%) are Not in the Labor Force. Most of those don't want a job.

So, 139,206,000 people have jobs, 111,744,000 are full time, 27,394,000 are part time. 80% of those with jobs are full time. Most of those with part time jobs are by choice.

[TheKentuckian]

36. Your unemployed number is either old, bullshit, or old bullshit

[pinqy]

37. Huh, weird typo...

the correct number is 14,485,000 which is 6.1% of the population. My fingers must have been off on the keypad.
Before anyone who doesn't know what they're talking about claims the 6.1% is too low, that's 6.1% of the POPULATION. The Unemployment rate is percentage of the labor force (153,690,000) and is 9.4%

[hfojvt]

42. I am not sure about the mentaility here

some seem to be horrified that not everybody wants a full time job. Myself, I would love to be married to a school teacher or a vetrinarian or something and not have to goto some shit job every day. I certainly do not really want to work full time, at least not at most jobs. Maybe if somebody paid me to do the research that I am already doing for many hours of the day, but otherwise it has always seemed to me that full time work just sucks your life away. My life at my full time job was kinda like this - get up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, make lunch, goto work (half hour commute), work for nine hours (including unpaid lunch hour), go home, make dinner, eat, wash dishes, watch TV for a couple of hours, goto bed. For five days of the week, there was maybe three hours of free time each day. It never seemed like enough.

[RadiationTherapy]

38. I don't think I understand why you know who wants a job and who doesn't.

I don't think I understand why you know who has a part time job by choice or circumstance.

[hfojvt]

39. if they wanted a job, then they would be in the labor force looking for one

Some get discouraged and quit looking, but in that case, apparently they do not want one very badly. At least not enough to keep looking.

Another thing left out is temp jobs. For about 3 years I worked a temp job. It was a full time job, but I really wanted a non-temp job.

I am not sure if they do a survey of part-time workers who want full time jobs. I went to part-time voluntarily in October 2006, but since then I have applied for a number of full time jobs. I don't necessarily want a full time job, but I would like to get out of the dysfunctional loony bin where I work. I certainly would not want to go back to full time there. My supervisor goes to war with whoever is full time. As a part-timer, I don't have to take 1/10th of the crap that I did when I was full time.

[PassingFair]

43. Stop and think of all the small "business" owners and "entrepreneurs" during this "recession"...

They never collected unemployment, and they
have to pay taxes on anything they can
scrape together.

Most self-employed people I know are living
hand to mouth, or getting shelter or other
help from relatives.

They must be factored into any of these
equations.

[pinqy]

45. They are included

There are approx 9,558,000 self-employed. Table A-8 of the Employment Situation And starting with the Feb Employment Situation for January data, there will be a lot more data on self-employed, broken down into incorporated and non-incorporated self-employed.

[PassingFair]

46. I was answering the poster that asked "If they wanted a job they would be out there looking for one"

Are there no PRISONS?
Are there no WORKHOUSES?


My husband has been looking
for employment here in Michigan
for many years without success.

[hfojvt]

49. then he would be included in the unemployed

even if he never collected unemployment. When I was 'self employed' I always needed another job, except when I was draining my savings. That was the beauty of being a small business.

It would be sorta nice if there were workhouses. Imagine having a place to go where you would be guaranteed of work, food and shelter. Presumably it could be self funded by the labor itself.

[pinqy]

40. Yes, I do.

The Current Population Survey, from whence comes the Labor Force Data, asks respondents who are not working and not looking for work "Do you currently want a job?" If they say "No," then they don't want a job. How hard is that?

And part time workers are asked what their main reason for working part time druing the week in question. Those that reply that it was because of slack work/business conditions or because they couldn't find a full time job are classified as "part time for economic reasons," and are part of the U-6 measure of under-urilization. Personal reasons/circumstances are irrelevant to tracking the labor market trends because they have nothing to do with the economic trends.

[RadiationTherapy]

41. Hahahaha. Well, you've explained it then!

hahahahaha.