Washington, U.S.A. — Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis issued the following statement on the July 2012 Employment Situation report released on August 3:

“Our nation’s labor market added 163,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in July, which exceeded all forecasts and represented the country’s strongest July job growth since 2006.

“The unemployment rate remained essentially unchanged at 8.3 percent, while the share of long-term unemployed fell to its lowest level since 2009. The Latino unemployment rate dropped nearly a percentage point last month to 10.3 percent.

“Over 29 straight months of private sector job growth, the economy has created 4.5 million jobs that didn’t exist when President Obama came to office, including 172,000 new private sector jobs in July and 1.1 million generated in 2012 alone. We still have more work to do to help every American looking for work find a good job, but this report reinforces that we remain on the right track. If we continue to invest in the American worker and avoid wrong-headed tax increases on middle-class families, we’ll stay on our current trajectory to achieve a full recovery in record time.

“July’s job growth was broad-based and reached nearly every sector. With bipartisan cooperation, I believe we can grow jobs even faster. For instance, over the last 30 months, our manufacturing sector has seen its largest job gains since 1989.

We added 25,000 new manufacturing jobs last month alone, but we could grow this number in the months ahead if Congress would embrace President Obama’s proposal to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and instead reward companies that bring good jobs home. Unfortunately, obstructionists on Capitol Hill blocked the administration’s common-sense plan to do so.

“One of the most damaging things we could do to our recovery is raise taxes on the middle class. We know that spending by the middle class stimulates growth, and that spending on the middle class generates a ripple effect throughout our economy. Keeping earnings in the pockets of hardworking families to spend on our economy helps our job creators grow their businesses and make new hires. The efforts by some in Congress to hold middle-class tax relief hostage to more tax cuts for the wealthy is deeply irresponsible and unhelpful to our recovery.”

Image Courtesy of   US Department of Labor

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Portland, U.S.A. – Despite more than one-third of polled small business owners reporting that they are somewhat or significantly understaffed, most don’t plan to hire in the upcoming months, according to a new survey by TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank.

Economic confidence affecting hiring

TD Bank’s survey – which polled more than 500 small business owners across the bank’s Maine to Florida footprint – found that although 35% of surveyed small businesses report being somewhat or significantly understaffed, only 21% plan to hire one or more employees in the upcoming months. A majority (70%) plan to maintain their current employee levels.

“Our survey results indicated that over half (51%) of polled small business owners are not optimistic about the U.S. economy,” said Fred Graziano, Head of Regional Commercial Banking, Government Banking and Small Business, TD Bank. “According to our partners at TD Economics, uncertainty about the future path of fiscal policy and the outlook for the global economy will keep businesses cautious about investing and hiring in the upcoming months. However, for businesses that are looking to grow for the long term, it’s a great time to take advantage of the low interest rate environment.”

Biggest challenges: finding qualified employees and declining sales

The survey asked small business owners to identify their biggest human resources challenges. According to the results, when small businesses are in a position to hire, they struggle to find qualified candidates to fill open positions.

The biggest challenges in employee management include:

• Finding new qualified candidates (42%)
• Training existing employees (23%)
• Offering competitive compensation (22%)
• Laying off inadequate employees (8%)
• Continuous employee turnover (5%)

TD Bank’s survey also asked small business owners to identify their biggest challenge in the next six months. Declining sales (29%) topped the list, followed closely by rising healthcare and insurance costs (27%) and cash flow concerns (23%). The other challenges were pressure from larger competitors (12%) and rising energy costs (10%).

“Identifying creative ways to boost sales revenue while keeping an eye on expense growth and cash flow is a good strategy to follow for managing a business in this current economy,” said Graziano. “That’s why it’s important to lead a strong and innovative team of employees that positively contribute to a business’ goals and objectives.”

Defining success as a small business owner

According to the survey, there are different opinions when it comes to best defining success as a small business owner. Doing something they enjoy (24%) and having a stable work/life balance (23%) were the top responses, followed by being one’s own boss and earning enough money to live a comfortable lifestyle (17% each). The remaining responses were continuous increases in business profitability (10%) and creating jobs in the local community (9%).

“Entrepreneurship helps people fulfill their dreams of turning a creative idea or passion into a successful business, regardless of how they best define it,” said Graziano. “Whether it’s applying for financing or opening one of our new small business checking accounts, TD Bank’s team of small business lenders and bankers are here to provide professional advice and legendary customer service.”

About TD Bank’s Survey

TD Bank polled more than 500 small business owners within its Maine to Florida footprint to understand their companies’ thoughts on the economy, employee levels and hiring plans, top challenges and how they best define success. The research was conducted in June 2012 by ORC International, and surveyed companies over the telephone with annual sales of no more than $5 million.

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Anthony Delmedico, founder and CEO of Del Visionaries, gave a speech titled E2 at the White House during the recent Future of Entrepreneurship Education (FEE) Summit.  E2 =  Entrepreneurship Education as core curriculum in our K-12 schools.  Anthony is demanding that Congress, state governor boards, President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan mandate entrepreneurship education as part of core curriculum for all public schools.

Fueled by the speech he gave at the Future Entrepreneurship Education Summit, Delmedico says he is launching an online digital petition to create awareness to the plight of America’s future and garnish the support of millions to the importance of entrepreneurship to empower the next generation of America’s youth to become entrepreneurs that is job creators versus job seekers.

During Delmedico’s speech, he gave factual statistics to highlight on how the lack of an entrepreneurial education has a negative effect on America’s youth and the American economy. ”While the nation’s unemployment rate wavers close to 10%, for young adults 16 to 30, the unemployment is closer to 26 percent, and in some cities in our nation close to 40%,” said Delmedico.

“For those fortunate enough to earn a high school or college degree, very few are prepared for today’s new economy, and the job market of today.  Currently there are 2.4M college graduates whom cannot find jobs in their fields of study, that’s 80%.  They are in debt up to their eyeballs and they are disappointed,” says Delmedico.

“According to a recent report by the McKinsley Global Institute, America will need to create a net 21M new jobs by 2020 in order to return to full employment.  Currently we have a job deficit in this country.  75% of all new jobs come from entrepreneurs, not large corporations.  So if we are serious about creating 21M new jobs in the next 8 years, we need to create an army of entrepreneurs. This Army is sitting in our K-12 school system today.

We must launch E2 (entrepreneurship education) as required core curriculum in our schools, starting in the 4th grade and advancing to the 12th grade.  And we must do this by 2013.  This will create an army of job creators versus job seekers and change the face of the American economy within 8 years,” says Delmedico.

In 2009, Delmedico authored an interactive workbook, Kids in business around the World, that teaches kids (8 to 14) how to start their own business.  Knowing that kids would need more than just a book or academic experience he also invented a mobile business stand branded the Little Green Money Machine.

Kids pick a kid business template from the book, design their own advertising banners, and sell products/services in their neighborhoods and communities. This revolutionary interactive learning system is now helping kids, tweens, and teens learn how to set goals, set-up their first business, and lays the foundation of financial literacy and social entrepreneurship.

“If Entrepreneurship is the engine of the American economy, why isn’t the same emphasis placed on it in our K-12 schools as Math, English, and Science?  If we are serious about creating jobs, and putting the American economy back on track, this is a no brainer.  We need to create an army of entrepreneurs!  We need to teach it in our schools!” Delmedico demands passionately during his speech to his DC audience.

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According to an Institute for Women’s Policy Research analysis of the January employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women’s employment now appears to be rising, and the past three months saw equal job growth for men and women (206,000 for each). This is good news for women since their job growth has substantially lagged behind men’s for most of the recovery.

In December, women gained 89,000 jobs, while men gained 111,000. The revised numbers for October and November show 117,000 new jobs for women since September compared with 95,000 for men.

Overall, job growth in the United States was moderate in December with 200,000 jobs added to nonfarm payrolls. This is up from 100,000 new jobs in November, but down slightly from 210,000 added in September.

From December 2010 to December 2011, of the 1.6 million jobs added to payrolls, only 521,000, or 32 percent, were filled by women, whereas 1,119,000, or 68 percent, were filled by men. Despite progress in the last quarter, the gap between women’s and men’s employment in December remains at 1.5 million.

Men are recovering more quickly than women, but the jobs recovery is slow for both men and women. Women have regained about one out of four (23 percent) of the total jobs they lost in the recession while men have gained more than one out of three (34 percent). (IWPR calculates job loss in the recession from December 2007 to the trough for each gender. Men’s employment trough was in January 2010, while women’s was in September 2010.)

The unemployment rate remained steady from November to December for women aged 16 and older (8.3 percent), but fell for men (from 8.9 percent to 8.7 percent). Some of the apparent improvement is due to workers ending their job search and no longer being counted among the unemployed.

Overall, the civilian labor force (those employed or unemployed and actively seeking work) shrank by 50,000 between November and December. However, this figure represents the net change of a loss of 82,000 female labor force participants and a gain of 32,000 male labor force participants.

Fewer women left the labor force in December compared with November. For those unemployed, the average or mean duration of unemployment has been 40.8 weeks. Half of those unemployed have been so for a median average of 21.0 weeks or longer.

One reason why men are doing better than women at this point in the recession is that women are a disproportionate share of state and local government workers; those levels of government are still shedding jobs, though their job loss has slowed. In December, the private sector added 212,000 jobs, while government employment fell by 12,000 jobs. Job growth was strong in retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and healthcare and social assistance.

While private sector employment grew by 1.9 million workers from December 2010 to December 2011, 280,000 government jobs were lost. This difference in job growth across sectors disproportionately affects women who represent 57 percent of workers in the public sector compared with 48 percent in the private sector.

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The prodigious rise in the UK’s unemployment rate has recently led the government to intervene to make people either earn or learn. Britain’s government has set aside £1 billion to help the record number of unemployed nationals. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg recently said that youth “contract funds” will help create internships and apprenticeships in the country.

A youth contract program, starting in April 2012, will provide 4.1m work places over three years for young people, including wage subsidies of 160,000 pounds for jobs and 250,000 pounds for work experience placements. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne’s economic statement mentioned that there will be payments to employers to encourage 20,000 apprenticeships under the program.

Clegg said that unemployment is economic waste and a slow-burning social disaster. The Office of National Statistics said unemployment among youth aged 16-24 has flared up in an unusual fashion in recent years, reaching 1.02 million in the third quarter from 67,000, the highest level since recorded in 1992. Further the office said the unemployment rate in this category is 21.9 percent and has continued to be so from last year.

Unemployment in the UK is on the rise according to Office of the National Statistics which presented that there were total of 2.62 million are left unemployed in the second quarter, highest since 1994, and this has brought the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent in the UK, which has been a jolt to UK’s economic recovery.

According to Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at Markit, “Labour market data will raise concerns that the UK Economic recovery is fading away.” Three factors have played havoc in the UK: rise in unemployment, weak earnings, and ultimately, inflation. Due to the rise in unemployment, uncertainty in the job market and inflation, situations have been created where it looks like the incomes of the households have been squeezed.

Unemployment is the key element that provokes weakness in the economy and if inflation is accompanied for a considerable time, then this might potentially lead to stagflation. And perhaps there are chances of economic doddering in the short-term because of Euro Zone Crisis but this is not exhaustive.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED), Europe is in recession and Britain will follow in 2012. OCED called on the Government to pump up resources to mitigate the impact of raising unemployment. The Government needs to consider easing the programme of fiscal spending cuts so as to revitalize and strengthen economy by the way of increasing public spending.

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Unemployed Americans are completing for jobs with those who are already employed. According to the Huffington Post, the job market is even worse than the 9.1 percent unemployment rate suggests. The 14 million unemployed Americans are also competing with 8.8 million people who have part-time jobs but are in search of full-time work.

Those with part-time jobs are more likely to gain full-time positions before the unemployed. Economists suspect that when companies are able to add more work hours, they will tack on more hours to part-timers’ workdays before making new hires.  

The New York Times reported that August brought no increase in the number of jobs in the United States. Patrick J. O’Keefe, the director of economic research at J.H. Cohn, an accounting firm, said the economy has about the same number of jobs as it did in January 2000. “We expected a weak report, and what we got was even weaker,” said O’Keefe.  

The monthly report showed a 17,000-job gain among private employers but no growth over all. The Congressional Budget Office said it’s expected for the rate of unemployment to exceed 8 percent until 2014. Republicans pointed to recent job reports as evident that the stimulus tactics of Obama are not working.

In an email to reporters, the Republican National Committee took note of the worst jobs report in nearly a year, saying that there has been “two and a half years of Obamanomics and nothing to show for it.” Michele Bachmann commented on job climate during her visit in Iowa on Friday. 

“The American people don’t need speeches, they need jobs,”  Bachmann said. While campaigning in Florida, Mitt Romney called the job report “unacceptable.” The new job report had a negative effect on the stock market. The

Dow Jones industrial average fell 253.31 points, 2.2 percent, Friday, closing at 11,240.26. “As long as payrolls are weak, you will continue to hear cries of not just recession risk but cries that the United States is in a recession and we just don’t know it,” said Ellen Zentner, the senior United States economist for Nomura Securities.

Overall, unemployment is lower than it was a year ago, but those gains have been among whites, Hispanics and Asians. For blacks, unemployment has increased, to 16.7 percent from 16.2 percent.

Obama is expected to renew the payroll tax cut and extend unemployment benefits, both benefits that are about to expire. Obama is also scheduled to give a speech on improving unemployment rates on Thursday night.

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