Blaming the poor, those on welfare, and the idiots sitting on their asses who aren’t looking for a job has become very popular as of late.
Surely there aren’t enough jobs just because companies have learned to do more with less, far less. No, there aren’t jobs because the lazy people (not you or me but them!) aren’t working or looking for work. // This is a bit of warped logic to me. So if the lazy people had jobs and thus they had paychecks then that would put more money into our economic system and that would create jobs. Right? Trickle-up economics?!
Very popular on Facebook and on various blogs is the graphic below.
Needy versus Lazy people
Are they really lazy? With some 24,000,000 unemployed or underemployed could it be that we’ve become just a nation of people sitting on our asses hoping that the check comes soon?
Or could it be that we are just passing the blame because we’ve run out of ideas … and perhaps the case may also be that business and its cheerleaders are fostering the notion that there are jobs if you just look — so please let’s cut taxes and let’s help business become stable in order to create jobs … even if (mid-to-large) business has achieved historical highs of profitability almost every quarter since early 2010.
So are we just sitting on our asses and being lazy OR are we out there looking?
Premise: I believe that the overwhelming majority of folks are looking for jobs — and if a job is available then they are taking it!
The data seems to support my premise via the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS.gov) JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) tracking:
View most recent BLS JOLTS data.
Sure there are jobs out there. Some. Somewhere.
If folks look carefully at the jobs chart you will see that the number of jobs being filled (the green line) is at the peak of the availability of jobs (the blue line/peak).
What this means is that jobs are being filled as quickly as they become available, and as hires are made.
So yes there may be X number of jobs available but there is always a percentage margin of jobs available that go unfilled on any given day. Some estimates are that there are 3 million jobs available (advertised) nationwide. That sounds impressive but with there being 141 million jobs in the current workforce you’ll see that 3M jobs really equals only 1.4% of all existing jobs being available. The math doesn’t work out to where the answer is “You need to get off your ass and get a job” … as if that were a good solution to people being out of work.
It all comes down to math. For example, North Dakota has jobs in energy that pay well. Sure we could encourage the unemployed to abandon their 30 year mortgage, sell their belongings and spend $6-10,000 relocating to North Dakota where they might find a job, if they were qualified.
Qualified? What? No on the job training? No schooling available? Certifications and higher degrees are needed?
Almost half of American employers say that they can’t find qualified hires … not even with 24,000,000 million underemployed and unemployed looking (well some still are).
The good news is that the lazy and those less well off don’t have much to say — because if they do then we’ll just hit ‘em with a pee test to see if they qualify for their unemployment benefits.
