Unemployment party

Jan. 1, 2020
Many of the talking heads on TV, print pundits and the blogosphere babblers are caught up in the euphoria of ?the economic recovery.? One auto industry writer recently said that recessions typically last 18 months and since we?ve been in a recession

Many of the talking heads on TV, print pundits and the blogosphere babblers are caught up in the euphoria of “the economic recovery.” One auto industry writer recently said that recessions typically last 18 months and since we’ve been in a recession for more than 18 months, it’s time for it to be over. Now there’s some critical thinking for you.

But if you’re one that is hell bent in putting this recession and negative thinking behind us, we can do that by looking solely at the recovery of the financial community. Through that lens, it is party time! The big banks have more money than they know what to do with it. Their biggest worry is trying to decide how big their employee bonuses should be – seven or eight figures. As taxpayers who have made this possible, it’s probably best to forget that these are the same people who created the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Now if you’re going to have a party, we need to invite some people over. How about the unemployed? It’ll be a long guest list. Since the recession started, 7 million people have lost their jobs. The official jobless rate hovers at 10 percent, and when you factor in the people who have given up looking for work and are not counted in the jobless numbers, the real figure is more than 15 percent.

For a broad perspective on the job market, political writer David Corn says there was no job growth from 2000 to 2009. That’s bad enough, but he points out that for every decade leading up to 2000, we had job growth that ranged from 20 to 38 percent, regardless of the political party in power.

But don’t let me put a damper on the party! The 7 million people who lost their jobs since the recession began will find jobs again, although by the time they do, we may be back in another recession. According to Harvard University labor economist Lawrence Katz, it could take up to five years to get the employment level back to where it was two years ago. And that’s if everything goes right.

Another party pooper point is the type of jobs that are going to be available when the unemployed reenter the workforce. The hard, cold reality is that the key criteria for finding a job will be based on how they can handle a bedpan, fry pan, broom…or how well they can read a script at a call center. Indeed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the greatest number of jobs in the next decade to be service jobs. In fact, six of the seven top jobs will be exactly that. They will offer obscenely low wages and laughable benefits, thereby perpetuating the polarization of the social classes in America.

Seems to me that our industry should take advantage of the lingering recession and unemployment. If there ever was a time to get some new blood into the aftermarket, it is now. Surely, we can sell ourselves to young people, or the downsized of all ages, who desperately need jobs and, more importantly, careers. Our story is more compelling than Wal-Mart’s, isn’t it? And I’m pretty sure we stack up well against Starbucks, Denny’s, Molly Maids and urine-smelling nursing homes. After all, the aftermarket is one of the rare industries that actually grows every year. Although it may not be recession-proof, it certainly is recession-resistant.

Ideally, I would like to see our industry run a concentrated recruitment program, both nationally and regionally, however, I understand how difficult it is to get everybody on board for such an effort. (We talk a lot about technician shortage, but what are we doing about it?) Short of such an effort, it may be up to individual distributors, retailers and shops to hire some people who need jobs and a forward-looking career. That action would do more to fight the recession than just about anything else you could do personally. Now that’s a reason to throw a party!

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