job creation – Page 2 – Shortwoman.com

Yay?

So, another jobs report came out today. Now, remember that economists believe it takes 150-200k new jobs gained each month to keep up with new people entering the workforce. Obviously that’s an average, and also obviously June is one of those months that a disproportionate number of people get out of school and start looking for jobs. Keep that in the back of your head, even though it’s not going to get mentioned elsewhere.

In June, the United States added 288,000 jobs, roughly 10% of which were government jobs. Unemployment is down to a mere 6.1% nationally. And there’s more good news hidden behind the headline: average manufacturing workweek is above 40 hours, so theoretically factories need more workers now; long term unemployed is down to [a still depressing] ~3,100,000.

Of course there’s bad news hidden too: average workweek overall was 34.5 hours; wages aren’t up; when you include the underemployed and discouraged workers, unemployment looks more like 12.1%. Think about that: just under of 1 in 8 workers is either working part time when they want full time work, or has given up on finding work at all!

As a guy with more expertise than me summarized, it’s “meh.” Or perhaps you prefer the more technical “yawn.”

Nevertheless, Wall Street went WHEEEEE! on anticipation that the Fed might actually raise interest rates.

Oh, and it turns out that the states with the most job growth are the ones with those “job killing” higher minimum wages.

In Closing: Oh yeah, get those sweet sweet NSA and spying on Americans and the world links here; free science books; birth control Supreme Court Hobby Lobby ruling follow up links; problem solved!; media points out what many of us have been saying for years; apparently I’m the only one surprised that Maliki is alive and actually in charge of anything; when a red cross blanket on a gym floor is soooo much better than home [insert sad face here]; for pity sake, use seat belts and make sure the kids buckle up too; and then they wonder why the locals are pissed at them.

Another Month, Another Jobs Report

Good news everyone!

Employment is at an all time high. There’s 217,000 more jobs than last month, and we finally have more people working than at the start of the Great Recession.

Ok, now for why that isn’t really very good news at all. Good jobs went away only to be replaced by crappy ones with low wages and low/no benefits. This is double true if you happen to be a man. And the number of people who are not in the labor market but now want a job is up 292,000 this month (for the math impaired, 292,000 is greater than 217,000). And we still have businessmen arguing with a straight face that it would be bad for business to pay sick workers to stay home 3 days a year rather than have them come to work and share their illness with coworkers and customers.

No wonder the majority of Americans think that the “American Dream” is out of reach.

In Closing: Got a whole heaping helping of random NSA, Snowden, privacy, secrecy, spying, terrorism, and related links; people hate the cable company, love cute kittens, film at 11; a couple of gun links; turns out the stoner was actually drunk, but that doesn’t make for a good pot-is-bad story; breakin the law; careful what you post on Facebook; eggs; for a movement that calls itself “men’s rights“, they spend a lot of time worrying about women (yeah, pretty sad that’s Cracked pointing it out too); young adult literature; and social media.

Red Oleander

In Closing: Slippery slope; Empire in decline; ok sure, have some NSA, Snowden, spying, and bonus Homeland Security links; Yellen at nothin; deny it all you like; yeah right, it might result in a very nasty bit of commentary but populist revolt??; it’s almost like math teachers get bored and try inventing new ways to add and subtract (and places like Kumon and Sylvan make more money….); and better figure it out, Eric.

Not Really Much Music Monday: May 5th

In addition to being Cinco De Mayo…..

It’s the birthday of Karl Marx.

In Closing: It’s good to be the CEO; a couple items on sexual assaults on campus (and not just college campuses, of course maybe if kids didn’t have to go to school in the dark….); turns out it’s not illegal to give away books; vaccination works; somebody’s gonna have to do something real soon now; and the job creation numbers aren’t as rosy as they first seem. Maybe that’s why all those armed guys have time to defend the Bundy Ranch?

Music Monday: Wonder How Much Honda Paid for Placement

In Closing: Silly; about time; Korean; War on Drugs; follow the money; low wage jobs; cross that bridge when you get to it, if you dare; and the center.

Music Monday: A little late but better than never

Anybody like to guess what kind of day I’ve had?

Why that’s right: A Monday!

In Closing: freakin H-1B visas; anybody really shocked to learn this?; limes; open source seeds; bad idea retracted (hello did anybody think this through at all?); interesting idea (although I’d just as soon see one set of massive third party debates — let them all air their crazy and not-so-crazy ideas!); yeah, probably ought to declare a mistrial since the defendant died; job creation; I’d sooner vote for Chelsea; and thank God this man did not become Pope.

Winning, Duh.

Believe it or not, the downhill slide towards graduation is underway for college seniors. On the flipside, high school students are finalizing their plans for college and some college students are setting up for graduate school. In the midst of this, NPR ran this item last week on a law school that is boosting its rate of employed graduates by simply employing them. Feel free to spend 5 minutes listening to the whole thing:

These students get a stipend from the school to work for nonprofits or in public service. That stipend can come out of the school’s budget or sometimes alumni donations. And when a school hires its own students, it can bump up its ranking. William and Mary Law School, for example, jumped nine spots this year. It employs 20 percent of its students on a fellowship program.

The school’s dean says the program helps students succeed by showing potential employers what they’re capable of.

Needless to say, critics call the program self serving. I see it as a win-win-win situation.

Of course the college wins! They do better on the metric of what percentage of students are employed after graduation, and can boast about it on marketing materials. Further, they can point out that these students are employed in their profession at decent wages that can pay their student loan debt, not minimum wage burger flipping jobs. The college gets a further win in the business community because employers will know exactly what the can expect out of new graduates. This sort of information improves the school’s reputation.

Students win too: they get a job! Even better, they get a job that will jump start their resume and give them references for future job searches. Student loans get paid, they don’t have to live with mom and dad, lower stress, and so much more in an environment where there’s a tough job market. Some of these one year temporary positions even end with an offer of full time work in a similar position.

The overlooked third win is the nonprofit or public service organization that takes on these new grads. Many of these organizations do great work in their communities on a shoestring budget. This program means work gets done that might not be done at all if they had to hire an established professional at prevailing wages.

You’d have to be a real cynic to avoid seeing that the benefit is more than a jump in school ranking. If you really value the work ethic and honestly think that education is the key to success, then you really have to like this program.

In Closing: a couple Vegas items; save this for next year; a school tries doing something sensible; the importance of microbiota; privacy, surveillance, NSA, fake reforms, terrorism, yadda yadda yadda; petty Putin; exercise is good for you; on the minimum wage and poverty and the real center. Have a great weekend, folks.

I bet I know how some jobs could be created….

More than half the nation’s public schools need to be repaired, renovated or modernized, a survey released Thursday found.

Getting these schools in good condition would cost about $197 billion….

Since to the best of my knowledge there’s no Renovation Fairy who can complete a project by waving a magic hammer, that work would have to be done by people. And since all those schools are here in the United States, there’s no outsourcing this to a foreign country with cheap labor. As a bonus, it might result in schools with fewer structural safety issues and better learning environments.

And when they’re done with that project, maybe they can do something about the 78,000 bridges that need a total of $3,000,000,000,000 in repairs.

Seems to me we can keep some construction workers busy for the foreseeable future.

In Closing: your dose of Snowden, NSA, privacy, CIA, and assorted related news; I guess Billie Jean was his lover, and the kid really is his son; sex work; and Vegas, baby.

Conflicted Feminist

I’m a feminist. By that I mean that I believe in equal –not better — rights, opportunities, and safety for men and women within biological limits. I am not a man hater or a bra-burner. I realize that this might well put me out of step with parts of the modern feminism movement and I don’t give a [expletive]. Moving on now.

Labor Day is over and the Halloween costumes are on the store shelves. Sure it’s early September, but gotta move those costumes early so there will be room for Christmas decorations in October. Do not question retail-logic. Hence, the lovely little Wonder Woman costume above. The package contains a shirt, headband, and cape.

I have mixed feelings on this item.

There are a number of things I like very much about it. First, it does avoid sexualizing a child. The costume is much more modest than that worn by Linda Carter years ago, shows infinitely less bust than this version, even if it’s not as “hip” as some of the most modern interpretations. The shirt doesn’t even hint at skin above that golden WW. Second, it’s practical as a costume. Sure, it can be worn with a cute little short skirt, or blue leggings suggested by the package, or even jeans. This is double-good considering the fact that Halloween is at the very end of October. Oh yeah, Halloween can be cold up north. If the jersey is of sufficient quality — no way to know from the packaging — the shirt can even circulate into school-wear after the big day. Finally, it’s simple. There’s nothing fiddly that will take a half hour to get into place before going out in this costume. No fancy accessories that are likely to get lost or broken. No pressure to buy a “completer kit” like those damnable Star Wars costumes from a few years back. No complicated stage make-up. Put on shirt, put on headband, add cape if you feel like it, and go!

Now for the one, single thing I hate. Would you just look at that silhouette? This Wonder Woman is built to Barbie proportions. It’s not a figure that a healthy adult woman has, even if she works out and eats right, even if she gets a boob-job. Even most cartoon women are drawn more realistically than that. I’ve never been one to over-react to body image issues, but this might just be sending the wrong message: “Sweetie, you’re never gonna look like Wonder Woman so don’t even try. Just put on this tent with a sexy chick drawn on it.”

So what’s the verdict: am I supposed to love or hate this costume?

In closing: “a growing number of sailors feel more comfortable reporting an assault and believe something will be done about it when they do;” nevertheless, I think I’ll just roll my eyes next time somebody says America has a “culture of rape“; glub; food; HIV; some random items on employment.

Oh, and one more thing. This guy told me one: “What’s the difference between 9/11 and a cow? You stop milking the cow after 12 years.”