Why does it take another persons comments to get me totally fired up. What this time? To some this may seem like the same tired argument, but to me, it is about our Job, our welfare, our economy!

I came across a recent comment regarding the 230,000 jobs our country lost this last quarter, in this fledgling economy, and the recruiter who posted wondered if this would affect recruiters, He also questioned if this was something we should be concerned about.

This post was almost amusing to me. No, not laugh out loud amusing, but a sad irony of amusement.

“How could that be?” Some may ask, “ Jobs are being lost and you find that amusing? Even if it is ironic, it definitely isn’t amusing, right?”

What I find sad, and such an absurdity is that we in this industry; yes, we in the employment industry  are only now realizing that that the information we have been getting all along has been inaccurate; that we have been fed a bill of “goods” for some time..

WAR For Talent…? Really? For real?

For those who keep pumping this out, What are you selling?  Why are You selling this bill of “goods”? (I would prefer to use another descriptive, but I must stay professional)

What do I mean?

Folks… Here is the Truth! Last year we had over 1 Million Less Jobs than from the year before. Yes, that is true, we really did have One Million Less jobs in 2007 than in 2006 but yet, for some reason due to the inaccurate unemployment figures, many kept saying and proclaiming that we had this Great Economy.

 Who were they kidding? What Calculator were they using? Seriously, they (and we know who “they” are) kept stating that unemployment stayed stagnant close to around 4 percent all of last year, Yet in reality We Were Losing Jobs All Year!!! Then on top of that, inflation continued to rise at unprecedented amounts, while salaries continued to drop 4 times in the past 5 years. Yes that is hourly and weekly wages. So why is it that only now we are we paying attention? Is this because (finally) these figures are in your face and undeniable?

Now, let’s look at some of the other facts.

As I said, wages continue to go down, discrimination is on the rise and H1- b visas are on the rise and as a result, companies can continue to pay foreign labor less salaries. (Wait didn’t I mention that there were less jobs? How could this be? Or is it because… (drum roll please) companies are taking longer to hire? Yet the cost of everything has risen to unbelievable highs!

                                          WAR FOR TALENT: FACT vs FICTION

If there was (truly) a war for talent:

COMPANIES WOULD PAY MORE

• According to Department of Labor statistics, real wages—that is, taking into account inflation—dropped by 0.9 percent in 2007, the fourth decline in five years. Between 1979 and 2005, the top five percent of American families saw their real incomes increase 81 percent. Over the same period, the lowest-income fifth saw their real incomes decline 1 percent. The top one percent of households received 21.8 percent of all pre-tax income in 2005, more than double what that figure was in the 1970s. (The top one percent’s share of total income bottomed out at 8.9 percent in 1976.) This is the greatest concentration of income since 1928, when 23.9 percent of all income went to the richest one percent

COMPANIES WOULD TAKE LESS TIME TO HIRE

• Companies would provide more benefits and hire Employees, not contractors – there would be less Misclassification of workers.
• Companies would provide more training
• Companies would be more employee and yes even recruiter friendly

Between 1949 and 1979, the inflation-adjusted average hourly wage for production workers rose 75 percent, from $9.00 to $15.78. Since 1979, the average production-worker wage has risen only 2 percent, from $15.78 to $16.11. Between 1979 and 2004, American workers raised their productivity 64 percent, while their median hourly compensation rose only 12 percent.

COMPANIES WOULD NOT DISCRIMINATE

• Discrimination would not be so high today as companies could not “afford” to be so “selective” with an alleged war for talent.. (FYI, Black Unemployment is Twice as High as that of their White counterparts!)

COMPANIES WOULD HIRE MORE

• Long Term unemployment would not be as high as it is today - -fyi, the people we are displacing are not Blue collared workers, no in fact they are white-collar employees and Americans trained in science and technology - “While the U.S. lost about 500,000 tech jobs between 2000 and 2003, Congress admitted about 500,000 foreign tech workers on non immigrant visas: L-1 and H-1B - resulting in the displacement of over one million American workers.”

COMPANIES WOULD HAVE INFLATION AND SALARIES IN SYNC

• America would not have the worst financial, deficit in recorded WORLD history. Yes, wages and economy do go hand in hand. - “For all of 2007, about 17.6% of those who were unemployed had been out of work six months or more. That compares to only 11.4% who were long-term unemployed in 2000. You have to understand that 5% unemployment today is worse than 5% unemployment 10-15 years ago,” said Jason Furman, senior fellow, Brookings Institution.

Furman and others say

“…long-term unemployment is not just a problem for those struggling to find jobs. It poses a risk for the economy as a whole and cuts into household earnings and economic output.”

There are some who want you to believe that this innocuous war for talent exists, because they have something to sell. The companies also want to pay less for your work, so they have to create the argument that there are no talented employees so (pretty) please government, increase our H1-b visas so that we may hire more.

Yes, these numbers (230,000 jobs lost last quarter) quoted were almost a “joke” to me, because they have been occurring for some time, but we have been fed a lie for so long, we don’t even know what the truth is anymore. It is only because the companies are now feeling the pain, that we can see the disaster right before our eyes, that we are now focusing on the real numbers - the Jobs per thousand or payroll , instead of the unemployment numbers. It is the unemployment numbers that have been promoted to us that are total and complete B.S. because they never reflected the true story of what was occurring in our economy!

Oh, fyi.. for those who harangue about the War for Talent and Baby Boomers —  Please let's get some facts straight there as well

• Baby Boomers Did Not produce the Biggest Boom to our Economy.. No, actually Generation Y did.. by the tens of Millions, and these kids are no longer Kids, they have already started to graduate, they have already entered the workforce.. they are now also having Kids of their own..

• On top of that 80 Plus percent of boomers said they were not retiring (according to AARP) - many can not afford to. (Hmm… Enron and lost 401k’s come to mind.)

So as I have said before, what with the Less Jobs, the Kids graduating from high school and college, the individuals entering the workforce - ie stay at home parents, Visa Employees, refugees, graduates, and such like.. and of course those who Are Not retiring.. and let’s again compile that with the “Less Jobs” year after year.

Why have we been spoon fed this full blown load of B.S? (Yes, I said it! Just calling it what it is.)

So, the way I look at all of this — Salaries have been going down for 5 Years, no huge number of jobs added to the economy for at least for well over a year, and for quite some time we have been growing tremendously in inflation and debt, so my question, why was the government pulling the wool over our eyes, with all this hype of one of the best economies???

Some may consider this just Another Rant and Rave by Karen Mattonen, but it is time we really take a good look at these numbers and Really Ask questions because this isn’t just about your job as a recruiter; it is about every job that we are losing, and the lies we are being told..

Enough with the fluff and puff.. DEMAND THE TRUTH!

An excellent article to review on this topic is:

The Shortage Myth - The Lies at the End of the American Dream
by: Paul Craig Roberts http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18830.htm

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.

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ABOUT KAREN MATTONEN, CAC, CSP

Karen is an experienced, successful recruiter who operates her own business and is actively involved in many industry organizations and activities. Her recruiting career began with Snelling Corporation. In 1998, after a successful tenure as a recruiter with Snelling, Karen struck out on her own, founding Advanced Career Solutions (ACS). ACS focuses on recruiting for the HVAC Industry. Karen has achieved accreditation as a California Accredited Consultant (CAC) through California Staffing Professionals. She has also gained her Certified Staffing Professional Certificate (CSP) through American Staffing Professionals. (www.americanstaffing.net)

Karen has a new and future-oriented vision of what recruiting can and should become: a profession we can be proud of for its ethical standing, professional conduct and ability to build great organizations. Her doing-well-by-doing-right philosophy is shaking up the status quo in an industry that needs to be shaken. She does this with conviction, leadership, and a distinctive voice that cries out for change.

Karen was a co-creator of the landmark webinar event – “EEOC Discrimination Debate.” This event featured senior members of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and staffing industry experts discussing and debating difficult issues about discrimination in today’s workplace environment. Company executives, hiring managers, recruiters, and human resource professionals from across the United States were invited to participate in the free Webinar and live panel discussion. Karen also served as one of the panelists on the discussion team in the March, 2006 event.

As co-host of the popular podcast “The Recruiters Lounge, ”Karen discusses her frank opinions on the recruitment industry with her co-host, Jim Stroud.