Summing Up

Here's more "good news" from "Financial Armageddon" - please follow link to original.
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Summing Things Up

Four recent reports more-or-less up where things stand with our so-called recovery:

Few businesses are adding staff --

"Mass. Job Fair Canceled Because of Lack of Jobs" (Associated Press)

TAUNTON -- A Massachusetts employment organization has canceled its annual job fair because not enough companies have come forward to offer jobs.

Richard Shafer, chairman of the Taunton Employment Task Force, says 20 to 25 employers are needed for the fair scheduled for April 6, but just 10 tables had been reserved. One table was reserved by a nonprofit that offers human services to job seekers, and three by temporary employment agencies.

Shafer tells the Taunton Daily Gazette the lack of employers means the task force won't have enough money to properly advertise the fair. --

The task force has been organizing the job fair nearly every year since 1984.

Shafer says the cancellation reflects the current economy -- even though things are getting better, companies are still cautious about hiring full-time workers. --

Those that are hiring are relying on temporary help --

"Temp Work Driving Growth" (The News-Messenger)

Short-term jobs let employers try out workers, test the economic waters

Many of the newest jobs these days come with an expiration date.

Facing economic uncertainty, many companies in this economy have turned to temporary staffing agencies to meet work demands without taking on costly health care benefits, state-mandated unemployment and worker's compensation payments.

Temporary help has been "the main driver of job growth" in the professional and business services industry during the past 18 months, according to a February report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. --

or are paying people less than before --

"Underemployed, Downsized and Living on the Edge" (The Fiscal Times)

Ed Muchnick knows his biggest paydays are behind him. The Mount Laurel, N.J., resident had been making more than $60,000 a year as manager of the children’s clothing shop founded by his parents in 1964. When the store closed in early 2007, Muchnick wanted to stay in retail management. He found a job as an assistant manager at a HomeGoods store in suburban Philadelphia in November 2007, with a salary of $48,000. That lasted two years.

Since then, the 57-year-old Muchnick has struggled to find a permanent job. He worked four months for the Census Bureau, at $17 an hour, and spent 10 weeks as a holiday-season hire at Target, earning $8 an hour. “It’s hell out there,” Muchnick says. He’s given up on landing a job that pays $50,000, let alone the $60,000 he was making five years ago. “It’s discouraging. The big companies are making money. I don’t think they’re hiring, and if they’re hiring, they’re hiring at the lower wages.”

Companies nationwide actually have started hiring again, but Muchnick is right that, at least so far, a disproportionate number of the jobs being created pay less than the positions that have been lost. Since March 2010, the economy has seen a net gain of 1.26 million jobs — a welcome rebound, but still far shy of the nearly 9 million jobs lost in the recession.

Yet economists say many of the new positions created are in lower paying occupations. Despite the overall job gains posted last year, companies continued to eliminate management positions, with about 550,000 being lost. “The problem is not just the quantity of new jobs being created, but the quality of those jobs as well,” Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Toronto-based Capital Economics, wrote in a recent report. He adds that underemployment creates a hidden drag on the economy by discouraging consumer spending. A Gallup poll last year found the underemployed spend 36 percent less than those who consider themselves fully employed. --

or are sending work out to those who will happily settle for less --

"More Businesses Are Outsourcing—to Rural and Small Town U.S.A." (Employment Trends)

Is your small business dealing with an increased workload and more demand from clients and customers? That’s a good thing. But with the economy still uncertain, many of us are leery about taking on full-time employees to help with the workload—even when we’re overwhelmed.

Well, there is a solution—and it’s closer to home than you might think. I first wrote about the trend of “ruralsourcing” on Small Business Trends in the summer of 2010, when several news outlets reported on the practice. Essentially, ruralsourcing means outsourcing jobs—but instead of outsourcing to India or China, the jobs are being outsourced to small and rural communities in the United States.

But profits are way up, so it's all good. Right?