Employment The Laggard

The US economy is progressing at a far better pace than most observers expected. Still, employment lags during this recovery.

Why? Shock treatment provided by Obama.

Potential employers took one look at Obama’s statist agenda and realized quickly that new employees were ticking time bombs. One could almost feel the collective corporate decision. Not just the health burden; witness the NLRB’s more aggressive attacks on the employer; then there is the notion of mandatory IRA’s for small employers. Or that in Jan/09 Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (S. 181). The new law will increase the number of pay discrimination claims, make them much more difficult to defend, and force employers to retain records relating to compensation decisions far longer than they have in the past.

In past reports we have quoted several CEO’s; it’s all the same - Obama scared the daylights out of these guys. The employment dept was closed. Naturally. Why in the world would anyone in his right mind want to take on a new employee with this guy at the helm?

Witness the recent sharp growth of shipping in the ports of LA and Long Beach, as reported in today's LA Times. Did trade employment numbers respond also? Only partially. As explained by one trade economist, “Trade employment numbers don’t reflect the growth in cargo movement because many companies have gotten more efficient......”

Companies made investments in efficiency, investments that were put off before. These planners were literally shocked into action.

Here is the answer to lagging employment.

Robert Craven