There are still lots of jobs Americans can do. The Feds just need to put the pitchforks to the Corporations still using Illegals.
Only thing is, that would go against the game plan of making Americans more dependant on Gov.

America Out of Work: Is Double-Digit Unemployment Here to Stay?

Jobless rate at 26-yr high

CNBC By JOSHUA COOPER RAMO

It was not a lesson Lawrence Summers mastered with great ease. But after nearly a decade working beside sphinxlike Alan Greenspan, and having watched his own tenure as president of Harvard cut short by a phrase that slipped too nimbly from brain to mouth, Summers, director of the President's National Economic Council, has become a restrained public man. Gone are the days when he would glibly compare flailing financial markets to jet crashes, as he did to TIME in 1999. He is mindful of how ill-considered asides by policymakers can cause financial-market angina. So you can probably imagine the ripple that ran through the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington in July when Summers looked up from his prepared speech, flashed a grin and loosed the sort of utterance that once upon a time marked imminent indiscretion. "There was," he told the room, "a fight about whether I was allowed to say this now that I work in the White House."

What Summers proceeded to offer was, in fact, an unusually candid insight. And though couched in jargon, it was an insider's confession of why our present economic moment is fraught with both danger and opportunity. There appears to be, Summers told the suddenly very attentive crowd, a strange bit of physics working itself out in our economy. The problem is related to a hiccup in an economic rule called Okun's law. First mooted by economist Arthur Okun in 1962, the law (it's really more of a rule of thumb) says that when the economy grows, it produces jobs at a predictable rate, and when it shrinks, it sheds them at a similarly regular pace. It's a labor version of how the accelerator on your car works: add gas, go faster; less gas, go slower.


What made Summers' frank comment important is that it suggests this just-add-gas relationship may now be malfunctioning. The American economy has been shedding jobs much, much faster than Okun's law predicts. According to that rough rule, we should be at about 8.5% unemployment today, not slipping toward 10%. Something new and possibly strange seems to be happening in this recession. Something unpredicted by the experts. "I don't think," Summers told the Peterson Institute crowd - deviating again from his text - "that anyone fully understands this phenomenon." And that raises some worrying questions. Will creating jobs be that much slower too? Will double-digit unemployment persist even after we emerge from this recession? Has the idea of full employment rather suddenly become antiquated? Is there something fundamentally broken in the heart of our economy? And if so, how can we fix it?

The Labor Conundrum
The speed of America's now historic employment contraction reflects how puzzling this economic slide has been. Recall that the crisis has included assurances from the chairman of the Federal Reserve that it was over when in fact it was just getting started and a confession from a former Fed chairman that much of what he thought was true for decades now appears to be wrong. Nowhere is this bafflement clearer than in the area of employment. (See 10 things to buy during the recession.)


When compiling the "worst case" for stress-testing American banks last winter, policymakers figured the most chilling scenario for unemployment in 2009 was 8.9% - a figure we breezed past in May. From December 2007 to August 2009, the economy jettisoned nearly 7 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's a 5% decrease in the total number of jobs, a drop that hasn't occurred since the end of World War II. The number of long-term unemployed, people who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks, was the highest since the BLS began recording the number in 1948. Jobless figures released Sept. 4 showed a 9.7% unemployment rate, pushing the U.S. - unthinkably - ahead of Europe, with 9.5%.


America now faces the direst employment landscape since the Depression. It's troubling not simply for its sheer scale but also because the labor market, shaped by globalization and technology and financial meltdown, may be fundamentally different from anything we've seen before. And if the result is that we're stuck with persistent 9%-to-11% unemployment for a while - a range whose mathematical congruence with that other 9/11 is impossible to miss - we may be looking at a problem that will define the first term of Barack Obama's presidency the way the original 9/11 defined George W. Bush's. Like that 9/11, this one demands a careful refiguring of some of the most basic tenets of national policy. And just as the shock of Sept. 11 prompted long-overdue (and still not cemented) reforms in intelligence and defense, the jobs crisis will force us to examine a climate that has been deteriorating for years. The total number of nonfarm jobs in the U.S. economy is about the same now - roughly 131 million - as it was in 1999. And the Federal Reserve is predicting moderate growth at best. That means more than a decade without real employment expansion.


We're a long way from Hoovervilles, of course. But it's not hard to imagine, if we're not careful, a country sprouting listless Obamavilles: idled workers minivanning aimlessly through overleveraged cul-de-sacs with no way to pay their mortgages, no health care, little hope of meaningful work and only the hot comfort of angry politics.


This is why the problem of how America works needs to become the focus of an urgent national debate. The jobs crisis offers an opportunity to think in profound ways about how and why we work, about what makes employment satisfying, about the jobs Americans can and should do best. But the ideas Washington has delivered so far are insufficient. They reflect a pre–9%-11% way of thinking as much as old defense policy reflected a pre-9/11 notion of who our enemies were. The funding for job creation in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was based on an assumed 8.9% unemployment rate. Now 15% is a realistic possibility. And yet we're hearing few interesting ideas about how to enhance America's already groaning unemployment support system as millions of Americans sit idle. Tangled in the debate over health care - and bleeding political capital - the White House may find itself too weak and distracted to deal with the danger of joblessness.


We can't afford to wait. The longer someone is unemployed, the harder it is to get back to work, a fact as true for the nation as it is for you and me. As the Peterson Institute's Jacob Kirkegaard explains, "It is entirely possible that what started as a cyclical rise in unemployment could end up as an entrenched problem." Past crises have illustrated that lesson: the longer you wait, the harder it is to contain. This is as true for joblessness as it was for subprime mortgages, al-Qaeda and computer viruses.

More details and the rest of the story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090911/us_time/08599192143900

Just in case you did not know....most of the jobs performed by illegal aliens are NOT wanted by the American citizens. It is easier to go on welfare, than to do hard work such as housekeepers, cooks, busboys, yard maintenance, etc. Illegal aliens are not taking away jobs from Americans. We are too lazy and proud to do what illegal aliens do.

Actually this misconception is widely spread but not true. A snapshot of the true problem can be seen in the reconstruction of hurricane damage in general and hurricane damage from Ike around the Houston/Galveston area specifically.

The massive damage caused by the hurricanes required more repair and reconstruction than area contractors could perform. Contractors from all around the country converge on hurricane sites because prices are high and the contracts are "rich".

Illegal aliens came to the US and found jobs in the construction industry doing highly skilled jobs as brick masons, carpenters, electricians, concrete slab finishers, and the rest. After working a tiny fraction of the time traditional workers spent to become "master carpenters, masons, electricians, etc." they started their own contracting business' and hired more illegal aliens to do the work. These "sub contractors" are performing much of the work being done in the US which was traditionally done by skilled workers.

It is now common to go to a construction site in many areas in the US and have trouble finding someone who speaks English. The amount of defective construction work being performed in Houston due to unskilled workers performing work requiring skilled workers is massive. I have seen it.

I live in the Clear Lake area, and the amount of workers you are talking about is minnimal compared to the nation. The jobs, and because I have also seen it, that illegals perform are the kind of work, none of us would do.

Yes, I know where you live. I live next to you. But if you aren't aware of the problem I described, you aren't aware of the problem.

In addition to the construction industry, illegals are heavily into the automotive repair and refinishing industry. I recently went to a shop which refinishes aircraft and could not find anyone (of the approximately twenty people there) who spoke English. The owner was gone at the time.

A couple of my friends from college are contractors and freely admit the problem. They have the attitude that their subcontractors promise to fix anything that is wrong. The fact is that ninety percent of the work is covered up quickly and defective work goes unseen. My friends lamely contend that if they don't use the lowest bidder for subcontract work, they cannot compete.

BS. Perhaps folks of your caliber are lazy and wouldn't stoop to doing that type of work.

There are many hungry Americans willing.

You say up to 20 Million Illegals is a minimal number??

There are many factories. Almost all the food production. And that ain't just pickers. Packers, freezers, those are jobs Americans will do. Tyson is notorious for bringing the Illegals in. They even told NC once, if NC didn't get the Feds to back off, they'd close up their plants and move elsewhere.

Construction, Landscaping, are also what Americans will do.

You are assuming that because they don't speak English they are illegal aliens...do you know for a fact they are?

Folks of my caliber have college degrees, and work for major US Corporations.

I assume no such thing. I've been following the Illegal situation and DHS performance for years.
The Feds know where they are and who is working them.

The same major Corporations that are srewing over us peons and the Illegal?

That's how it is in St. Louis. They are housekeepers in nursing homes, housekeepers in hotels and private homes, grass cutters, roofers, cooks, and jobs like that. I know one. He used to be Chuckie Cheese before he became a cook. He has also worked in the fields down south. Not very many are in construction around here.

The biggest problem that those who favor "illegal immigration" currently face is the unfunded liability issue. The government is already trillions in debt and can't afford the legal folks, much less the illegal ones. If "illegals" are willing to be essentially a slave labor class and never expects to get any kind of welfare, that's fine, because they would then contribute to the capital base. If "illegals" are allowed to get welfare, that will simply bring a quicker end to the system and they'll be unemployed themselves.

"The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that in 2005 there were 11.1 million illegal immigrants total, living in the United States. The center also estimated that about 500,000 illegal immigrants a year came to the U.S. from 2005 to 2008."

[urlhttp://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/cost-of-illegal-immigrants/

There's even less then that now due to the recession.

I am not assuming anything. The contractors freely admit it. We had an interesting conversation recently where the contractors discussed the "hierarchy" of the "Mexicans" over the Hondurans, San Salvadorians, and Guatemalans.

The incorrect "fact" that illegal immigrants do not take jobs from US citizens and the jobs that are taken are low paid ones that no citizen wants is widely spread, mainly by the Hispanic community.
The blatant evident to the contrary is disputed. Some of my best friends and neighbors are Hispanic. They laugh about it.

It's not the illegal aliens. It's the companies who want to hire the cheapest labor force are the culprits and the ones who went overseas (china, india etc) to 3rd world countries to make sweatshops and have the poor people work for like 3 dollar/day to be able to buy enough food and water so they don't starve.

I would like to find a way to not buy their products!

There are ways to avoid buying these products that involves slave labor work in foreign countries or here in this country for that matter. It takes a little research and a little more money in ones pocket can help.

I buy most of everything from my home country by family owned small businesses that have been around for a long time. People always ask where did you get that? I tell them the same thing. A little research, willpower, and money helps.

I am a firm believer in good quality and therefore don't mind to spend a few extra dollars to keep something for a longer time. I do my research first to see how the company makes it products and what is involved before buying it. Most people won't go through all that effort! They just buy it regardless caring less of who or how it was made.

My method goes against the corporation values. They want things to break down or to not last so eventually the customer will go back to buy it again and it is the masses that do it. So this method seems to work for the corporations and for that matter most of many countries. Until then many believe they are cornered to only buy this type of products because they don't research for themselves to see other possiblities of buying things that contribute to society in a positive way.

Oh well I am just doing alot of rambling. This will probably get refuted anyway.

Whatever it is worth good luck with the topic.

Smiless.

I can't find clothes made in America.

It is called "modern day slavery" I think once I posted an article about it..

read this one too

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_48/b4011001.htm

There are some companies that still make clothes in America, but if you are looking for clothes that doesn't involve slave labor work or human rights issues there are many countries that offer it.

I mean the American Corporations and other countries somehow lost themselves to cost issues. They want to make as much money as possible even if it goes against the principles of human rights issues. China employs thousands of workers for pennies and little sleep. You would also be surprised to know that children at very young ages are also to work at these factories for long periods of times, some of them to even stay around the clock there.

And when that shirt is created and eventually ends up in a Gap store for example we can buy it for 20 dollars, which is cheap. Then you wash it twice and it doesn't fit or the material is already falling apart.

So here you are going back to Gap to buy another shirt created for pennies in a country like Pakistan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mexico, China. etc. etc.

Not that I don't want these countries to do well. I do, yet with human rights.

Now human rights what are we talking about right?

Normal working hours
Wages that can pay bills and live a life
Insurance possiblities
Education to further advance at the plant

and so forth...

A topic that can be discussed and debated until your face turns blue.


but to stop such injustice (and I guess one would have to see it to really understand it first hand) then the first thing we as a people should do is research ourselves. Save a little to buy a better quality that didn't involve slave labor work.

This goes for food products also. Coffee is a great example.

A Kenyan woman assorts coffee beans all day for 2 dollars. This money only can buy some rice and if lucky some bad meat, yet the tourists can have a cup of coffee there for 2 dollars without a problem.

Don't you think that Kenyan woman who works all day at the coffee bean plantation should have a better wage?

Now this would bother the consumer, because they don't want to pay more for the coffee at Starbucks.

and also care less what other people in other countries suffer.

Then you ask yourself why so many people come to this country hoping to have a better life.

The 6 dollars a hour on a plantation surely beats the income they make in their country.

So we have to look deeper on how to stabilize this issue to have it better not just for this country but for others so we can all enjoy the benefits of life.

And of course a easy solution seems inevitable, but in reality it is not easy for we have many greedy people in power that care less about others. They want their 6 bedroom mansion, fancy car, and power most of all.

What can you do about it? It starts with what you buy and what you study and research. It doesn't sound significant, but if everyone did it then just maybe the tide will turn for the peoples favor and not just the corporations who care less about life and others.