Today, President Bush announced an initiative to help illegal alliens get jobs here in the United States. This was announced with rhetoric of “There is an economic need, and it is important that we have an immigration policy that meets those economic needs,” and “So many illegal immigrants are in the country, we need to find a way to resolve that problem in a compassionate and productive way,” and how this proposal would “match willing workers with willing employees.” Or, briefly summarized, “they are here, they are cheap, we may as well make them legal.”
Meanwhile, a research and analysis group released a report concluding that there were 1,236,426 job-cut announcements in 2003. Please remember that these figures do not include all the unannounced job cuts at all the small businesses that do not put out press releases. This same report concluded that there might not be substantial job growth in this country until 2008. It would seem that announced job cuts for 2004 are already off to a roaring start.
Now, please consider last week’s unemployment data as released by the Department of Labor. The data in that url will be replaced with more current figures as time goes by, so please let me point out the relevant numbers for the week ended December 27, 2003. The widely reported number for first time unemployment claims was 339,000. However, this was a seasonally adjusted number.* There were actually 516,501 who followed through on the unpleasant task of walking into the unemployment office and filing a first time claim. Even this figure does not include those who lost part time jobs, professionals who feel small check is not worth the time it takes to fill out the paperwork, and students who might have finished a college degree (and the associated student work placement) in December.
This same Department of Labor is currently trying to finalize rules that would effectively eliminate overtime pay. That’s right, they want to cut the income of our hardest working families, and curtail the creation of new jobs while they are at it: your Lumberghian boss will not hire a new person full time and give them benefits when he can simply make all his existing employees work harder. Your Senator needs to hear from you now.
So let me make sure I understand this correctly. We are in a “jobless recovery,” the Department of Labor is pursuing “reforms” that will thwart job growth, well over a million people were put out of work in “announced layoffs” alone last year, half a million people applied for unemployment benefits in the last week of December, and President Bush wants to normalize the status of illegal aliens working in this country?
That makes less sense than Britney Spears’s ephemeral marriage.
*Much thanks to Seeing the Forest for pointing this out.