More data for the Obama Administration to chew on: August job openings, reported in today's Wall Street Journal, were down again. Job openings reached the lowest level since the Labor Department began tracking such data in December of 2000.
So, the beat goes on: higher unemployment every month accompanied by fewer job openings every month. Is the White House paying attention?
It is becoming increasingly hard to fathom why every program proposed by this Administration makes employees more expensive and reduces the incentives for business to hire anyone. It's interesting that the parts of the world that are climbing out of this recession - parts of Eastern Europe and virtually all of Asia -- do not have such silly policies. Why are we adopting them?
Is unemployment an irrelevant sideshow for the Obama Administration?
I am sure that the growing economic malaise in the United States is popular with Europeans. So, Obama is riding high with Europeans. But, unless this Administration turns on a dime, which isn't likely, America will live with double digit unemployment throughout Obama's first (and hopefully last) term. This is not a "Bush problem," this is an Obama problem.
Strangely, I don't think Obama really minds high unemployment. He certainly isn't proposing anything to deal with it. Quite the contrary.
