Jobs in, jobs out

Contrary to popular opinion — or what the media selectively reports — there are lots of jobs out there. Millions of people have been hired in the past year, and still are being hired.

Then how do you account for the screaming headlines of mass layoffs and job losses?

Simple: job churn. Millions of Americans are being hired. But many more are being fired.

Of course, that’s nothing new. The US economy has always added and subtracted jobs at a dizzying pace, as business guru Tom Peters points out. He cites a recent Forbes article which presents some stunning statistics: Between September 2008 and September 2009 the US economy lost about 6 million jobs.

But it wasn’t like six million were shown the door, and everyone else stayed put. Rather, as Peters put it:

We added—yes, I said ADDED—51 million jobs. And we lost 57 million jobs.

Result: Net loss of six million jobs.

Where did all those people go? Many are now free-lancers or part-timers.

A 2006 Government Accountability Office study estimates that 30 percent of all U.S. workers are now free-lancers or part-timers, who do not show up into any of the Bureau of Labor Statistics worker stats categories. Unreported annual income from the “informal” (or “underemployed”) economy could be $2.3 trillion — yes, TRILLION.