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PrintDecember 27, 2010
Obama: The 'Temporary' President
In the December Jobs Report the overall news was grim -- the unemployment rate rose to 9.8%, the under-employment rate exceeded 17.2%. However one notable statistic that was overlooked and under- reported was that the number of temporary workers continued to climb. In November 40,000 temps were hired while the overall workforce expanded by 39,000. Since September of 2009, over 494,000 temporary jobs have been added with the overall jobs increase of 901,000 in the same period.
Many economists think this recession may have produced a structural shift towards temporary workers making up a larger proportion of the labor force. However, the recession is not the primary driver of this trend. It is the regulatory, tax and anti-capitalist policies of the Obama Administration and their fellow travelers in the Democrat caucus in Congress.
The cost of doing business in the United States is rising exponentially when the new health care bill, financial regulations, environmental fiats, the highest corporate taxes in the world and a myriad of state laws and regulations are factored in. Those who must continue to do business in the United States have to look to reducing fixed costs.
The ability of businesses to raise prices to offset these mandates is limited, particularly within the current economic climate and international competition. Labor is the largest single cost item for business -- both manufacturing and services -- and it is increasingly the only place cost reductions can be made.
Unfortunately, it will be the worker who suffers as benefits paid to permanent employees will not be available and the overall take home pay of temporary employees is significantly less. As ours is a consumer driven economy, the more this trend continues the less money there will be for spending within the economy.
As an article in the Financial Times highlighted, a business in Cleveland, Ohio (Great Lakes Integrated) started to hire temporary workers over the past six months. This printing company does not plan to use the temporary workers just for the recovery's shaky beginning; it plans to keep up to 90% of its temporary workforce permanently. This process is being repeated throughout the country.
Thanks to the Obama Presidency the middle class will suffer yet another blow to its future. Anthony Carnevale of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce stated: "Employers have shifted risk to employees and as many other employers as they can. If you think this is temporariness you haven't seen anything yet."
