The “Help Wanted” sign is out again in America.
But it’s not what you think.
A report from the newswire Reuters says that massive hiring is in effect for Obamacare with state and federal agencies hiring both directly and issuing grants to community organizations to act as kind of insurance agents, signing up as many people to Obamacare as possible under the law.
“State offices that will run insurance exchanges are hiring tens of thousands,” reports Reuters, “either on staff or through outsourcing firms. Federal agencies that are key to implementing the law, such as the Internal Revenue Service, plan to hire thousands more, and private non-profit groups backed by the White House are dispatching thousands of newly hired staffers and volunteers into the field.”
Reuters believes that the hiring could “produce a modest, if temporary, boost to employment across several industries.”
Ha! It’s about time Obamacare did something, after costing the country so many jobs, so much lost work time, so much in taxes- even before implementation.
So that “Help Wanted” sign hanging around American necks isn’t really a sign indicating jobs for real people, like you and me.
Rather it’s an S.O.S. from an economy that can’t produce jobs in sufficient numbers to make up for the liberal job sloth produced by Obamacare.
You can’t just whack out millions of full time jobs though massive, wasteful, and misunderstood legislation and expect the economy to remain completely silent.
Help! Please! Help!
Indeed, as our own Mike Shedlock reported last month, year over year “those ‘not’ in the labor force rose by 1,604,000” while “the number of people employed rose by 1,645,000.”
That’s a net gain of only 41,000 jobs, even as unemployment stats went steadily downward.
Remember all the talky-talk about the job scene getting better?
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Riiiight.
Even worse, “voluntary plus involuntary part-time employment rose by a whopping 441,000 jobs. Take away part-time jobs and there is not all that much to brag about. Indeed, full-time employment fell once again, this month by 148,000.”
The culprit, most likely, in this job-killing spree is Obamacare.
Companies are rewarded for cutting hours, cutting jobs and going to temporary workers.
“Employers in several Districts cited the unknown effects of the Affordable Care Act as reasons for planned layoffs and reluctance to hire more staff,” reported the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book in March.
On cue, mass-layoffs, while not matching numbers seen in 2009-2011, are trending back up even as the Federal Reserve continues its stimulus measures.
Thank goodness the clever administration has figured out a way around the pesky mass-layoff problem with true Obama flair.
This week the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced:
On March 1, 2013, President Obama ordered into effect the across-the-board spending cuts (commonly referred to as sequestration) required by the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended. Under the order, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) must cut its current budget by more than $30 million, 5 percent of the current 2013 appropriation, by September 30, 2013. In order to help achieve these savings and protect core programs, the BLS will eliminate two programs, including Mass Layoff Statistics, and all "measuring green jobs" products. This news release is the final publication of monthly mass layoff survey data.
Ok, I get how measuring mass layoffs might cost some bucks; but really? Green jobs? Couldn’t a blind guy with one hand and a broken solar calculator do that job for $24,000 per year?
Not under Obamacare they couldn’t.
While Obama gets to play reality T.V. star, rewriting the script to suit himself, the rest of us on the other side of the glass in TVLand have to play by the rules of reality, physics, economics and the law.
A recent Gallup poll found that 48 percent of small business owners think that Obamacare will hurt profitability, while 41 percent have quit hiring because of it. 1 in 5 small business owners have already reduced their workforce to accommodate the healthcare law according to the same poll.
“In addition to restricting hiring or cutting jobs,” reports CNBC, “small companies are considering other ways to mitigate the expected financial fallout. Twenty-four percent are weighing whether to drop insurance coverage, while 18 percent have ‘reduced the hours of employees to part-time’ in anticipation of [Obamacare’s] effects.”
But it’s not just small business that getting the shaft.
Last month I wrote about Obama’s former chief of staff- and Chicago’s newest mayor-for-life- Rahm Emanuel, who decided that the city was through with paying for healthcare benefits on behalf of about 30,000 retired government workers.
“Once the phaseout is complete,” reported the Chicago Tribune, “those retired workers would have to pay for their own health insurance or get subsidies under the [Obamacare.] The city-subsidized coverage is particularly important to retired workers who aren't yet eligible for Medicare, as opposed to those 65 or older who use the subsidies for Medicare supplemental insurance.”
The 30,000 retired workers will either pay for their health insurance individually, says the city, or they can move their healthcare over to Obamacare and receive a federal government subsidy along the way, in addition to paying an out of pocket premium. The proposal will save Chicago $109 million next year.
The bill to the federal government for the move to Obamacare will be $110 million.
Which is really the point right?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, to make up for the money Chicago saved by passing along twice the healthcare costs to retirees and the federal government, had to mass layoff the Mass-Layoff Statistics guys in order to be able to afford Obamacare.
Thus the circle is complete.
So, as I said in the beginning: Help is wanted.
Send help.
Please.
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