DOL Job Openings Survey: Job openings lowest level yet, stimulus failing

Fascinated by the President's receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, the mainstream media largely ignored a Department of Labor report that highlighted the complete failure of the Obama stimulus package. On Friday, the Job Openings and Labor turnover summary showed that the number of new job openings in August fell not only to its lowest level since the onset of the recession, but its lowest level since the 1970's.

The Department of labor reported that the number of new job openings in August fell to 2,387,000 positions, a decrease of decrease of 21,000 from the month of July. The 2.387 million new job openings reached a level exactly 50% lower than the recent high of 4.8 new jobs in June of 2007. The number of new job openings has consistently dropped since September of 2008 and has reached a level nearly 600,000 jobs lower than February, 2009 when the Economic Recovery Act was passed.

The report showed that the number of job openings and hire rates dropped amid every sector of the economy including the construction, manufacturing and transportation sectors supposedly targeted by the stimulus act. According to the Department of Labor, there are now 6 applicants for every new job opening, the highest level in more than 30 years. Moreover, the summary highlights the lowest per-capita level of small business hiring since the government began publishing the report. Prior to this recession, small business accounted for more than 1/3 of all new job hires; today, that number has dropped into the 20th percentile as small business hiring has nearly frozen.

The Job Opening and Labor Turnover Summary highlights the failure of the Economic Recovery Act as the number of job openings and hires has consistently decreased since February. Moreover, the stagnancy in numbers within recent months demonstrates that as federal spending ramps up, job creation is not following. Detractors of the so-called stimulus plan, such as myself, highlighted that the spending bill failed to provide consumer based stimulus and tax incentives to small businesses. Moreover, federal stimulus money severely restricted industries that received such funds, requiring that the money be invested on unneeded capital projects rather than utilized to shore-up deficit budgets, enhance services and rev up supply. The failure of the Obama Stimulus plan may ultimately represent the most wasted spending in government history considering that the recovery act was nearly 5 times larger than any stimulus plan in U.S. history.

The bottom line is that you can not have long term economic growth without job creation. It is now evident that our nation is headed into an economic abyss similar to that of the 1970's.