Bleak Start to September

Many people have told me I focus on negatives rather than looking for silver linings and I have made a strong effort to reverse this in the past few years. Unfortunately, the news that was released today, 9/2/11, is very disheartening and there is not much silver left in the lining.

The New York Times just reported zero job growth in the U.S. for the month of August with much of the blame placed on the poor performance by our government in dealing with the budget crisis plus a very low demand for manufactured goods. As a professional recruiter, I assure you very few people are hiring right now but here is a quote from an expert which verifies what I have been preaching: “Business confidence surveys have uniformly pointed to businesses who are not laying off workers, but who are holding off on hiring while they wait for a clearer outlook—an outlook that became much cloudier and more volatile beginning with the debt-ceiling battle in July, said Ellen Zentner, the senior United States economist for Nomura Securities."

It is against all my beliefs to rant about politics in my blog entries but this updated news is really getting under my skin. We need to contact our elected officials at all levels and urge them to put the well being of our entire nation ahead of their absolutely pitiful in-fighting! Democrats are fighting with other Democrats and Republicans are fighting fellow party members, plus no one is listening to anyone down in D.C., best I can see. The leaders of all sectors such as banking, real estate, manufacturing, insurance, health care, etc. must start leaning on our government to get its act in gear and work toward a gradual but steady economic recovery.

Let's hope that Labor Day weekend will be the start of a better economy for all of us!