Jobs Outlook Bleak - Long Term Unemployment Soaring

UPDATED: What I find most telling about the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the GOP is that faced with this economic calamity, members of the GOP at both the state and federal levels are blathering against same sex marriage yet doing nothing to address the employment melt down.

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As the GOP continues its program of obstructing almost everything in Congress, the economy continues to teeter and a new form of long term unemployment is growing. Obviously, more of the same old thing is not going to turn the state of affairs around - not that Republicans like Bob McDonnell seem able to grasp this fact. While this region of Virginia is somewhat cushioned from the worse joblessness due to the huge number of military, defense contractor and civil service personnel, the number of available jobs is dwindling and those previously in the construction trades are being especially hard hit as new construction of all kinds plummets. In my view, something akin to the Civilian Conservation Corps program of the 1930's is needed to both provide jobs and address the nation's crumbling infrastructure. There's been a lot of talk to date but no real action. Obviously, the gay bashing and demonization of minorities by the GOP base are not going to fix the problem. Here are highlights from the New York Times on the growing unemployment disaster:
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Even as the American economy shows tentative signs of a rebound, the human toll of the recession continues to mount, with millions of Americans remaining out of work, out of savings and nearing the end of their unemployment benefits. Economists fear that the nascent recovery will leave more people behind than in past recessions, failing to create jobs in sufficient numbers to absorb the record-setting ranks of the long-term unemployed.
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Call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come. Yet the social safety net is already showing severe strains.
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6.3 million Americans who have been unemployed for six months or longer, the largest number since the government began keeping track in 1948. That is more than double the toll in the next-worst period, in the early 1980s.
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An unusual constellation of forces — some embedded in the modern-day economy, others unique to this wrenching recession — might make it especially difficult for those out of work to find their way back to their middle-class lives. Labor experts say the economy needs 100,000 new jobs a month just to absorb entrants to the labor force. With more than 15 million people officially jobless, even a vigorous recovery is likely to leave an enormous number out of work for years.
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Large companies are increasingly owned by institutional investors who crave swift profits, a feat often achieved by cutting payroll. The declining influence of unions has made it easier for employers to shift work to part-time and temporary employees. Factory work and even white-collar jobs have moved in recent years to low-cost countries in Asia and Latin America. Automation has helped manufacturing cut 5.6 million jobs since 2000 — the sort of jobs that once provided lower-skilled workers with middle-class paychecks.
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Traditionally, three sectors have led the way out of recession: automobiles, home building and banking. But auto companies have been shrinking because strapped households have less buying power. Home building is limited by fears about a glut of foreclosed properties. Banking is expanding, but this seems largely a function of government support that is being withdrawn.
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At the same time, the continued bite of the financial crisis has crimped the flow of money to small businesses and new ventures, which tend to be major sources of new jobs. All of which helps explain why Ms. Eisen — who has never before struggled to find work — feels a familiar pain each time she scans job listings on her computer: There are positions in health care, most requiring experience she lacks. Office jobs demand familiarity with software she has never used. Jobs at fast food restaurants are mostly secured by young people and immigrants.
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Reforms in the mid-1990s imposed time limits on cash assistance for poor single mothers, a change predicated on the assumption that women would trade welfare checks for paychecks. Yet as jobs have become harder to get, so has welfare: as of 2006, 44 states cut off anyone with a household income totaling 75 percent of the poverty level — then limited to $1,383 a month for a family of three — according to an analysis by Ms. Albelda.
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The article goes on to track some individual stories and it becomes very clear that the USA gives little or no value to its citizens while obscene bonuses are dolled out on Wall Street - fueled by government bail outs. Something is seriously wrong with this nation.