There are 15 unemployed Americans, plus 10 million under-employed, plus 1 million discouraged workers. The unemployment rate is about 10%. 12% of Americans depend on food stamps.
Fifty years ago 34% of American jobs were in manufacturing. Now less than 5% are in factories, and most of those are in food, gas, and clothing.
Immigrants
The U.S. issues 125,000 work visas each month, plus 100,000 illegals entering the country a month (roughly 75% of all illegals have jobs), plus 100,000 young Americans entering the work force for the fist time each month, equals 300,000 jobs that need to be created each month just to keep the unemployment rate steady. 8 million illegal immigrants have jobs, out of 12 million total.
Underemployment
The total underemployment nationwide is 16%. In California it is 24%. The rate for people with no high school diploma is 35% nationwide, 7% with a college degree. The rate for rich people is 3.5%, and 35% for the poor. The rate is 25% for blacks and Hispanics, 14% for whites.
Recovery
The historical unemployment rate post World War II is 4%. It took 12 years to go from 4% to 12%, in the 1981 recession. It took 20 years to get back to 4% — stayed there for five years – then took 2 years to jump pack to above 10%. 7 million jobs have been lost in the last two years, and at least 2 million of those will never return.
Many jobs over the years went south via NAFTA. The jobs we sent to Mexico are now themselves going to China. China creates 1 million jobs a month. Their economy is booming, at 12% or better.
Action Items
We need to seal the borders and stop issuing all visas until employment returns to 6% or better. We need to enforce immigration laws and make a priority of (at the very least) sending the 40% of undocumented workers who are single back home.
We need to enforce existing trade agreements with China to equalize the market. China has fixed their currency and the price of their goods is reduced by 40% from what they would be in a free-market economy.
