John R's List: unemployment

• The industry needs an image boost, and young people need to get educated about  high-skilled factory jobs, experts said

• An aspiring machinist -- a popular factory job -- can start training at 18  and then do a one- or two-year manufacturing apprenticeship. In five years, he  or she could be making more than $50,000. In 10 years, that could double to  $100,000.

• Still, with almost 13 million unemployed Americans, including many high  school graduates, he is struggling to fill positions. 

   

  A recent Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte report underscores that.  Manufacturers currently have 600,000 vacancies nationwide

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• An improvement in the employability of the labour  supply

•  

  An improvement in the incentives for people to  search and then accept paid work - this may require some reforms of the tax  and benefits
• A sustained period of economic growth

• demand is sufficiently high for businesses to be  looking to expand their workforces

   

  Improving skills and  reducing occupational immobility
  

• Reflating  Aggregate Demand
• diagram below we see an increase in aggregate demand leading to an expansion of  aggregate supply. Because

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• Unemployment among youth increased by 745,000 between April and July, more than last year’s increase of 571,000,
• many graduates enter the labor market to look for or begin permanent employment.

•  The Facts 

   The Romney campaign provided a link to Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that during Romney’s four-year term as Massachusetts governor, the number of jobs went up 61,000. By contrast, the number of jobs under Obama has dropped by 1.86 million.   

  Sounds bad, but context is everything. Obama has only been president for three years, so it seems only fair to compare him to Romney’s record in his first three years. The economic environment was pretty lousy in the early part of Romney’s term, so his three-year record amounts to less than 3,400 jobs. We’re not sure that’s worth bragging about.

   Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom responded, “On an absolute value basis this is still better than Obama by 1.8553367 million jobs.”

• Government has a critical role to play in paving the way for job creation
• Increased investments in infrastructure saved or created 1.1 million jobs in construction industry and 400,000 jobs in manufacturing by March 2011. Almost all of these jobs were in the private sector. The reason for this success is simple: Upgrading roads, bridges, and other basic infrastructure not only creates jobs but also paves the way for businesses small, medium, and large to benefit. Infrastructure investments lower the cost of doing business, making U.S. companies more competitive. And they put people to work earning good, middle-class incomes, which expands the consumer base for businesses.
• By the end of 2010, $93 billion in investments to the green economy had created or saved nearly 1 million American jobs. These 997,000 jobs include both the “green jobs” created directly by investment in specific industries and indirectly by their suppliers, as well as the additional jobs created when workers spend their incomes back into the economy.
• Three programs for energy efficiency retrofits, the Weatherization Assistance Program, Energy Efficiency Block Grant Program, and state energy programs collectively upgraded over half a million (530,000) buildings and employed almost 25,000 Americans since the programs began to ramp up from April 1, 2011 and June 30, 2011
• As a result of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund and other components of the Recovery Act, the Department of Education reports that more than 400,000 teachers got to keep their jobs.
• In fiscal year 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Fund allocated more than $21.2 billion to seven USDA programs that invest in rural infrastructure, businesses, and homes. These programs upgraded public utilities and community facilities provided broadband connections to businesses and homes, invested in rural businesses, and helped rural families purchase homes. In addition to improving quality of life, these investments resulted in over 300,000 jobs for rural residents.

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