President Obama signed a jobs bill into law on Thursday, but declared that the measure, which is intended to spur employment by providing businesses incentives to hire new workers, “is by no means enough.”
Of course it's not enough. I'm still without a full-time job over here.
The bill itself is pretty meager:
The bill gives employers an exemption from payroll taxes through the end of 2010 on workers they hire who have been unemployed for at least 60 days. It also extends the federal highway construction program, shifts $20 billion to road and bridge building and allows small businesses to accelerate the depreciation on investments they make in equipment, by allowing them to write off purchases of up to $250,000 right away.
But while Mr. Obama began the year vowing to focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs,” he and the Congressional Democratic leadership have taken a largely incremental approach. Some economists have said the measure Mr. Obama signed will have only a modest impact on unemployment, and Democrats are already planning to follow it up with legislation that would extend more than $30 billion in corporate tax breaks and aid to small businesses.
As you can see, the bill focuses more on construction jobs - which I will admit had been hit hard by the Recession and which does fit into Obama's Stimulus programs - and on providing businesses tax credits to hire people currently unemployed. But I really don't see anything here that helps where I work. There's nothing here for library growth or retention - in fact states are still looking at cutting funding for libraries. There's nothing here directly in technology and computer jobs for my computer skills.
The other problem is that the $15-20 billion in the bill isn't all that much. Seriously, at the federal level that's kinda cheap. Considering that having 9.7 percent of the employable population is officially out of work - equal to about what, 27 million Americans? - I would think that any... Actually I don't consider anything much past my own nose right about now when it comes to getting employed. It's been more than 14 months now that I've been unable to find anything full-time that would hire me, that I could justify as a good hire... I know I'm being selfish, but there's gotta be a lot of guys and gals just like me - college-educated, struggling, white-collar or office-trained - in the same boat and in no position to go for these 'shovel ready' jobs. Where's the 'clipboard ready' jobs, eh?
The only two options I'm facing right now are 1) running a write-in campaign for the US Senate or 2) Sending my resume to every CEO job on Wall Street so I can get some of that awesome BONUS moneys. So what if I lack an MBA? Those company boards are more clueless than I am when it comes to Economics 101 (hint: Buy Low. Sell High. I could write a book on that!...).
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