Worried about the unemployment rate? Waiting for things to turn around? We have two words for you: uh-oh.
As regular readers of AllBiz know, small businesses are crucial to the U.S. economy. They make up 99.7 percent of all employer firms. They hire half of all private-sector workers. Over the past 15 years, they’ve generated 64 percent of new jobs.
But they’ve taken down the “help wanted” sign.
Recent research by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which studies American entrepreneurship, reveals that the “current” employment slump actually began long before the recession. The Kauffman study, titled Starting Smaller, Staying Smaller: America’s Slow Leak in Job Creation, shows small businesses have been cutting back on workers for years, launching with smaller staffs and sticking with smaller staffs.
“While the recession certainly deepened the jobs deficit, the U.S. economy stopped producing enough new jobs well before the downturn,” says Robert Litan, coauthor of the Kauffman study. “Historically, startups are the key to long-term employment growth and they’ve been hiring fewer people. We won’t fix our core unemployment problem in the United States until young businesses get back on track.”
And they won’t get back on track until, well -- how about never? Or at least not until we have a change in Washington, from the purse-mouthed Tea Party on the one side and, on the other, our milquetoast president, who’s turning out to be the white Jimmy Carter. (What? You’re one of those people who think Obama is a cool cat? C’mon. The guy plays basketball in sweatpants. That’s about as dorky as it gets.)
But still...Polls say the debt wreck has dented the popularity of Republicans more than the president. An August 10 survey by the Washington Post shows 33 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or a “good amount” of confidence in Obama to make the right decisions on the economy (down from 43 percent in January), while economic confidence in Congressional Republicans has dropped from 35 percent to 18 percent over the same period.
Solid gold. With an ounce of gold now nearing $2,000, you may be tempted to sneak up on Grampa next time he gets blotto and passes out snoring on the couch. (Yours doesn’t? Ours neither.) But before you do something rash, the Better Business Bureau has some advice: selling the old Au isn’t as easy as those gold-party websites make it seem, says BBB prez Lynda Pasacreta. “Whether you do it through a gold party, over the internet or through a local jeweler, you need to get informed before you sell your jewelry. Selling old or unwanted gold is a growing trend for consumers during these uncertain economic times.” (“Unwanted gold”? If you have any of that, er, lying around, let us know. We’ll bring our dentist tools. Gramps won’t feel a thing.)
Do you have $2,000? The economy is bad. How bad? Here’s a depressing little story we came across. A survey by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that half of Americans said they wouldn’t be able to come up with two grand if they ran into an unexpected financial setback -- like a dental emergency (see above), a hole in the roof or a blown tranny. Only a quarter said they’re sure they could come up with the money. Think about that. Three-quarters of the people in this country don’t have an extra $2,000 in the bank. Times really are tough.
