Monday, July 1, 2013

"I Want a Job.. I Got a Job...I Hate my Job..."

Its Monday.. the beginning of a slow 4th of July week..

You may still see volatility in the market-- big triple digit swings and all that nonsense but volume of trading will be down compared to other weeks so other than the release of June's jobs report on Friday, nothing happening in the market will matter..

Of course, nothing in the market Should ever matter..

And we know how the jobs report will be received...
If the employment rate went down, that's "Good" because more people have jobs (or more likely kicked off the 'seeking work' list)

And if the employment rate goes up, that's "Good" because it means more people are looking for work, though of course usually when more are "Looking" for work it means they don't have jobs currently

No such thing as the rate going up because More people are out of work than before..  no no no..

So you see:  Rate goes up = Good; Rate goes down = Good

Gotta love them rats.
And businesses and companies Love more and more people hunting and competing for the same jobs..  Means they can offer less and less salary or take away benefits and ultimately they'll find takers.

So many prospective demographics to choose from too--

The recent college graduate who's been out of school 6 months or more.. the student loan repayment deferment period is over and unless they're going to be entering criminal enterprises or the sex industry,  that $500-$1000 monthly bill must get paid via wages.

The 30-40 something who has stacks of bills and unopened collections notices, trying to keep both family and sanity together as they hunt and hunt for jobs far beneath their pay grade and educational skill set...
The 50-60 something who should be thinking about eventual retirement but have barely enough savings to last six months and unless they're going to reverse-mortgage their beloved home, there is no big clump of money coming their way..

The late 60 to mid 70 somethings who are still struggling with Social Security just not enough to cover expenses or those financially alright but bored out of their minds and needing something to do to make the days worth awaking to..

Yep-- companies have a plethora of willing and able candidates who will happily (secretly bitterly) do the menial tasks demanded of them at crud wages just to survive..

"We understand this position at one time paid $16/hr but times are tough in this Ahemm.. 'Recovery'... are you willing to accept $13/hr?  You are.. great!   Um.. we just found out someone will accept this position at $12.50/hr....  Will you take $12?"
There are so many ironies about working and job hunting..  When one really thinks about it deeply, it makes the mind ache...

For instance, its quite ironic that many people are too busy to attend to their children's lives due to the requirements and responsibilities of their job..  Can't go to Missy's soccer games or see Billy act in his school play..

Then that person gets fired and what happens... 'Sorry Missy and Billy.. Daddy is too busy looking for work to attend your extracurricular activities...'

And when hired elsewhere--  'Sorry Missy & Billy.. Boss needs me..'
Another irony involves taxation and job creation..

Company XYZ opens a large office of distribution center in a given state.  The politicians give XYZ juicy tax breaks in order for the company to build there.

Now, if XYZ is going to be paying zero property tax and zero percent of any profits it generates from that location, who will make up the lost revenue??

Yep-- the newly hired employees.
So let's say XYZ creates 2,000 new jobs and to keep this example super-simple, every employee will earn $30k with a state income tax rate of 3%..

This means $900 in state income tax generated per worker x 2000 people equals $1.8 million in new tax revenue annually from that one business while the corp itself doesn't pay a penny.

So not only do the employees work 8 hour days to make XYZ profitable and successful, they also pay an additional 3% out of their wages to ensure this.

People actually Pay Money to get hired and stay employed!
Yep..  It's a messed up world sometimes..

But its not all bad...

And this is a nice week for vacations and fun times with the family..

Unless something super-duper important occurs this week in finance which we need to address and inform you of, we'll be keeping things a bit light for the coming week

So Happy Monday..  Let's all go Yachting!