Today President Obama will be hosting a jobs forum to gather ideas on job creation. He's going to be in for some rough waters if a study by Rutgers University's John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development is any indication. In polling done this time last month, only 43 percent think President Obama has done a good or excellent job handling the economy. Others, 51 percent, rate President Obama's performance as only fair or bad. Most of those polled, 84 percent, say it's a bad time to find a good job with 53 percent believing that we are still in a recession. Another 29 percent say it is a depression. Half say this a temporary turn of events, but nearly the same number say there are fundamental and lasting changes in the nation's economy.
The President may not be able to garner support for a second stimulus package. Of those polled, 69 percent said the nation can't afford more debt for another package, regardless of the shape of the economy. Only one in four said that a stimulus package is worth adding debt.
Our survey reflects the growing impatience and frustration of American workers about a recession that has lasted nearly two years," said Carl E. Van Horn, a co-author of the study, the director of the center and a professor of public policy. "The President and Congress face a very difficult dilemma. American workers want more jobs, but they do not want the government to borrow more money to pay for programs or tax cuts that might generate them."
Want more jobs? Cut taxes. Businesses and investors are facing a slew of new taxes and don't want to have money tied up in employees when they don't know what their tax burden is going to be next year.— theodotius
Cut taxes for the middle class. Middle class consumers are the engine of the global economy. If demand exceeds capacity, businesses will hire. Anyone who thinks that a business will hire if they get a tax cut is an idiot. Do you really believe that any business would say "Hey, I have some more money because I got a tax cut. My current staffing level is meeting demand but I think I'll hire some people because I have some more money." They hire when they see that their current staff can't meet demand and if they increase staffing they can make some money. We need the middle class consumer to buy goods and service but they don't have the money. Wages have gone down for the middle class for two decades. It will be a long time before job pressures result in increased wages. Cut taxes on the middle class and the economy will turn around.— MikeP
Every day for 60 days, Inquirer staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen profiled someone from the ranks of the region’s unemployed.
-
Cold winter for the jobless
- Ranks of long-term jobless are growing.
-
How a printing plant failed
- Big gambles and bad decisions, oil prices and credit crises, even a New Zealand tycoon: All played a role in Downingtown.
- Jobless60
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
