Earning money in America

Global ageing: Time to rethink retirement

The Economist

The Top Five Most In-Demand Jobs

TIME

Poll: More Than Two Thirds of Voters Say 'Drill Here, Drill Now'

breitbart

By AWR Hawkins 

A Harris Interactive poll conducted for the American Petroleum Institute shows that 67 percent of registered voters support more offshore drilling for oil and 77 percent support more domestic production, period. 

Moreover, out of 1,002 respondents, 89 percent said that expanded on and offshore oil and gas natural gas production "could help strengthen America's energy security" while 87 percent believe increased production "could lower energy costs for consumers."

For these reasons, nearly 90 percent of Americans said more oil and natural gas production would help our economy. And 84 percent said more oil production production could "benefit federal and state budgets" through "lease payments" and "royalty fees." 

But while the American people support expanded oil and natural gas production by such large majorities, President Obama maintains a posture opposed to it. According to the American Thinker, by May 2013 production on federal lands had declined 40 percent under Obama.

Moreover, the Canadian Free Press (CFP) says Obama's production-crushing policies in the Gulf of Mexico, following the 2010 BP oil spill, so hindered oil and gas exploration that 2010 levels of production will not be seen again until "at least" the end of 2014.

All the while 92 percent of voters believe increased oil and natural gas production could do one thing Americans have not seen Obama do--create more jobs in the U.S.

O'Reilly: Economic justice

UnderstandingSociety: Skilled work

UnderstandingSociety

By Daniel Little

Watch an active construction site for a few minutes and you will see some amazing examples of skilled work and deft problem solving. That was true today in Ann Arbor where I happened to see one complicated step in the construction of a new wing of a five-storey building. The problem was this. A fifty-foot girder was lifted by crane to its intended location within the vertical steel frame. Already I was impressed with the skill of the crane operator, who deftly maneuvered the beam into position where two steel workers were waiting on the existing beam. The crane suspended the beam in place and the steel workers bolted the near end to the frame. So far so good. But the far end was to attach to an isolated vertical beam fifty feet away, and I couldn't picture how that end would be attached. The steel worker answered that question quickly. He scuttled the length of the beam to the isolated vertical while the beam was suspended by the crane cable and the attached end. But now the resistance of the material world intervened -- the beam was a little too long to fit. The worker used two crow bars he'd brought with him to lever it into place -- no good. It was just half an inch too long given the position of the vertical. So are we stymied? Need to send it back? No. The worker stood up on the beam and started gently rocking the vertical. After two or three oscillations he was able to lever the beam into place, and quickly bolted it down.

It's not a completely amazing instance of problem solving on the job, but it is impressive nonetheless. Certainly the users' manual doesn't have a section on what to do in this circumstance. But given his prior training, experience, and embodied skills, the worker was able to come up with a solution that worked.

Richard Sennett describes this kind of artisanal intelligence in The Craftsman. He describes craftsmanship as "the skill of making things well" (8). Further,

The Craftsman explores these dimensions of skill, commitment, and judgment in a particular way. It focuses on the intimate connection between hand and head. Every good craftsman conducts a dialogue between concrete practices and thinking; this dialogue evolves into sustaining habits, and these habits establish a rhythm between problem solving and problem finding. The relation between hand and head appears in domains seemingly as different as bricklaying, cooking, designing a playground, or playing the cello— but all these practices can misfire or fail to ripen. (9)

A part of the interest of Sennett's work here is the help it provides in redressing the idea that mental work is professional and cognitive, while manual work is repetitive and rote. Sennett gives many contemporary examples of work that is both head and hand, both cognitive and skilled, both creative and manual. Sennett gives many examples of this kind of artisanal intelligence. Here is one from the construction of a large shopping mall in Atlanta.

The lighting in these aboveground car-houses turned out to be uneven in intensity, dangerous shadows suddenly appearing within the building. Painters had added odd-shaped white strip lines to guide drivers in and out of irregular pools of light, showing signs of improvising rather than following the plan. The craftsmen had done further, deeper thinking about light than the designers. (44-45)

Sennett's point here is that the implementation of a complex space is not simply the translation of a computer-generated architectural drawing into material form. Rather, it is a process that requires real workers to find solutions to the inevitable fact of gaps and inconsistencies in the plan--in this case, the fact that the lighting didn't fully illuminate the space, leading to risks for pedestrians and drivers.

A dominant tradition of philosophy identifies our human essence with our ability to think and reason. Descartes represents this line of thought ("cogito ergo sum"). But there is another tradition that places labor and our capacity to transform the material world at the center of the human essence. Hegel represented this line of thought, as did Marx. It is the homo faber tradition -- man the creator -- and all in all, it seems to do a better job of defining us. Labor and skilled intelligence lie at the core of human capacities. And that is a good thing to remember on May 1, the international day celebrating labor.

The Natural Rate of Unemployment in 2013

politicalcalculations

Last March, we estimated what the natural unemployment rate for the United States was given the number of employed and unemployed Americans as well as the job turnover rates for which Americans were being hired into new jobs or let go from their old ones. Here's what we found:

In the tool, the labor market is considered to be overheating when the official rate of unemployment is below the natural rate of unemployment. That's definitely not the case for January 2012, with a natural rate of unemployment of 7.87% and an official rate of unemployment of 8.26%.
The natural unemployment rate of 7.87% also suggests that the current pace of job creation as given by the JOLTS data will not be sufficient to significantly lower the official rate of unemployment, which we've already seen with the February 2012 employment situation report, where the official rate of unemployment came in at 8.27%, up slightly from the previous month.

Let's do the math again, this time with the data available through the end of 2012:

BLS Employment Situation Table A-1 Data
Input Data	Values
Total, Civilian Labor Force, Employed (thousands)
Total, Civilian Labor Force, Unemployed (thousands)
BLS Job Overview and Labor Turnover Table A Data
Total Hires (thousands)
Total Job Separations (thousands)

Natural Rate of Unemployment Results
Calculated Results	Values
Ratio of New Hires to Number of Unemployed (%)
Ratio of Job Separations to Number of Employed (%)
Natural Rate of Unemployment (%)
Official Unemployment Rate (%)
How much slack is there in the labor market?

Running the numbers for December 2012, we find that the unemployment rate at the end of 2012 was 7.85% - just a hair below the 7.87% natural rate of unemployment that we estimated with the January 2012 data we used in our previous calculation. Or rather, the pace of job creation throughout 2012 was not sufficient to significantly lower the official rate of unemployment, just as we expected.
But then, we also find that natural rate of unemployment through December 2012 is 7.63%. When compared to December 2012's official unemployment rate of 7.85%, that suggests that the pace of job creation as given by the JOLTS new hire and new separation data will not be sufficient to significantly lower the official rate of unemployment, which we've already seen with the January 2013 employment situation report, where the official rate of unemployment came in at 7.9%, up slightly from the previous month.
That outcome agrees with our tool's finding for the data of December 2012: there's not a lot of slack in the U.S. job market, so there will be little prospect of significantly altering the official unemployment rate data in the short term.
With that being the case, we can expect little improvement in the official unemployment rate this year, which unless something happens to upset the economy, should slowly converge with the natural unemployment rate. Believe it or not, that's consistent with what President Obama's economic forecasters have predicted for 2013, who foresaw back in July 2012 that the U.S. would have a 7.6% unemployment rate by the end of 2013.

Want to Run Other Numbers for Yourself?

You can get the most recently reported data through the links below!

Employment Situation (EMPSIT)

This report is produced monthly and contains the number of employed and the number of unemployed for the total U.S. civilian workforce. The appropriate data is found in Table A-1 in the data section of the report.

Job Openings and Labor Turnover (JOLTS)

This report is produced quarterly and provides the numbers of those newly hired or who have recently separated from their previous employment in the civilian workforce. This data is found in Table A of the main body of the report.

Just remember not to mix and match the data for different months!

Obama’s Regulatory Cliff Draws Near

frontpagemag/ Arnold Ahlert

garyhasissues.com

Many Americans believe the biggest problem the nation currently faces is the so-called fiscal cliff. Unfortunately, the fiscal cliff is nothing compared to the avalanche of new regulations that will be coming in 2013. That Americans remain unaware of this ominous development is understandable. The most transparent administration in history ignored the provisions of the Regulatory Flexibility Act and a subsequent series of executive orders that require the semi-annual release of all regulations under development or review by some 60 departments, agencies, and commissions. Thus, the April 2012 and October 2012 deadlines came and went without compliance. Now that the election is over, Americans will discover just how all-encompassing Obama and his big-government zealots intend to be.

The scope is staggering. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the overall regulatory burden has reached $1.8 trillion annually, and $215.4 billion in compliance costs have been added in 2012 alone. The OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website reveals that 4,100 new regulations are in the pipeline, with more than 400 aimed at small businesses, whose compliance costs will exceed those of their larger competitors by 36 percent.

Unsurprisingly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be taking the lead role in flexing the administration’s regulatory muscles. Proposals to significantly expand the Clean Water Act will give the EPA power over virtually every body of water in the nation, including farm ponds, streams, and even storm water runoff, all of which could seriously impact family farmers and small businesses. More restrictive requirements for controlling ozone emissions could cost $90 billion annually and trigger the potential loss of millions of jobs. The designation of coal ash as a “hazardous substance” will substantially increase energy costs, adding another $79 billion to $110 billion to the regulatory tab, and eliminating thousands of jobs in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Missouri, and Ohio. A new rule that tightens allowable levels of so-called fine particulate matter will be added to the mix as well, making it far harder for local governments to issue new manufacturing permits.

Keep reading on frontpagemag >>

'Full Employment in Two Years' Is Easy, Says Krugman

ForaTv

Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times and author of End This Depression Now!, asserts that Congress and uncompromising politicians are standing in the way of true economic recovery. Krugman believes that there are "easy fixes", but that leaders are failing to act.

Nasdaq reaches 11-year high; Dow at highest level since before 2008 financial crisis

A drop in the unemployment rate to its lowest level in three years propelled stocks higher Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped more than 130 points, drawing the average to its highest mark since before the financial crisis hit in 2008. The Nasdaq index reached levels last seen in December 2000. More >>

NeoKaxtrizmo en Accion: Ampliaran exportacion de la fuerza de trabajo

Univision.com/

Cuba tiene "innumerables posibilidades" para ampliar la venta de servicios profesionales, principal entrada de divisas de su economía, con unos 6.000 millones de dólares anuales, pero debe "diversificar mercados" e identificar ofertas, opinó el domingo un alto funcionario local.

El viceministro primero de Comercio Exterior e Inversiones, Antonio Luis Carricarte, dijo a la Agencia de Información Nacional que "la exportación de servicios profesionales" cuenta con "innumerables posibilidades por aprovechar" en la isla y que el "reto es unir esfuerzos en una estrategia integral".

"Hay muchas condiciones para lograr más, solo con diversificar mercados e identificar las posibles ofertas", añadió Carricarte, al destacar que sectores como "la cultura, la educación y las investigaciones científicas", pueden "potenciar alianzas con socios interesados", sin que ello implique "necesariamente el traslado" de los profesionales cubanos a otras naciones.

Según el viceministro, "esa modalidad comercial debe vincularse al desarrollo alcanzado por Cuba en la elaboración de productos de la biotecnología y la ingeniería genética, con tratamientos específicos para el cáncer, la diabetes y otros males".

La exportación de servicios profesionales representa la principal entrada de divisas de la economía cubana, con unos 6.000 millones de dólares anuales, seguida por el turismo y las ventas internacionales de níquel.

Unos 40.000 médicos, maestros, instructores deportivos cubanos, técnicos agropecuarios y constructores, trabajan en Venezuela, Angola y otros países que pagan por sus servicios a empresas estatales cubanas.

El gobierno de Raúl Castro prevé flexibilizar la contratación de fuerza de trabajo individual por otros países, como parte de las reformas que impulsa el para hacer eficiente el agotado modelo económico cubano.

Sin embargo, la contratación individual y la posibilidad de que cubanos realicen turismo en otros países, también aprobada por el VI Congreso del gobernante Partido Comunista (único) en abril, requieren de ajustes en las estrictas normas migratorias cubanas, aún pendientes de aprobación.

Does Smaller Government Create More Jobs?

Uploaded by TheRealNews on Nov 25, 2011

Bob Pollin: There is no evidence that austerity and cuts to social programs creates jobs.

NY's Mayor Bloomberg Warns Of Mass Riots If Economy Doesn't Create More Jobs

During his weekly radio show, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned that unless action is taken to help young people find work, the United States is at risk of seeing mass rioting.
"We have a lot of kids graduating college — can't find jobs," Bloomberg said in an exchange first reported by the New York Daily News. "That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."

Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-16/politics/30164262_1_jobs-plan-riots-radio-show#ixzz1YB7FRUgJ

The Jobs Revolution/ Edward E. Gordon

 By Edward E. Gordon

What are the myths and realities related to current systemic changes in U.S. jobs and employment? In a recent New York Times column, Paul Krugman correctly muses that neither political party wants to talk about reducing unemployment. But he then states, “Bear in mind that the unemployed aren’t jobless because…they lack the necessary skills.” His prescription for unemployment: “We could have W.P.A. type programs putting the unemployed to work doing useful things like repairing roads.”

Unfortunately, we are not living in the 1930s. Major road building construction has been automated and mostly requires skilled trade workers who have completed technical training programs. Jobs for common laborers are disappearing.

Krugman is correct when he says, “There is nothing wrong with our workers—remember just four years ago the unemployment rate was below 5 percent.” It is true that most Americans are hard working people, but Krugman wrongly attributes the past situation to a highly skilled workforce.

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Note to dictators: It's the job market, stupid

CHRYSTIA FREELAND There’s nothing like a few revolutions to focus the mind. The lesson the world’s smartest authoritarians are drawing from Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution and its neighbourhood copycats is simple: It’s all about jobs.

“The leadership in China is always worried about how do you stay ahead of the growth to create enough jobs,” says Dominic Barton, the global managing director of consulting firm McKinsey, who has lived in Asia for much of the past decade. “They have to create over 30 million jobs a year. … They know that if they don’t and there are disruptions and the people don’t have jobs, there will be revolution.”

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Note to dictators: It's the job market, stupid

Jobs: Computers versus Humans

Could the slow job growth rate of the "Great Recession" be attributed to new technologies replacing human labor and intelligence? Is artificial intelligence likely or desirable in a post-industrial society?

This Global Ethics Corner slideshow is part of a weekly series from the Carnegie Council.

USA: Where are the jobs?

La opinion de los comemierdas

Pluriempleo paso "positivo" en camino de reformas, dicen analistas ...