I’ve been working for myself for 10 years now, celebrating my anniversary in June. At this point I think it makes me at least a specialist in the pros and cons of trying to work for oneself. Trust me, it’s not easy, and the dichotomy that comes up can be mind numbing. Let me show you why.

1. Marketing can be challenging. Marketing is what separates those who will make it and those who will struggle. At some point we all have to try to come to grips with this and figure out what works best for us. In my case, I’ve done the bulk of my work as a subcontractor, so I’ve marketed myself to people who act on my behalf better than going directly to a customer base.

2. You sometimes work longer hours. When I was first in business I found myself regularly working 16 to 18 hours a day, even on the weekends. This is when working a 9-5 looks really good, getting paid, coming home to watch TV, and being able to take a paid vacation 2 or 3 times a year. You have to make yourself work to get things done because no one else will do it.

3. Money is inconsistent. For someone who likes to budget, it’s tough budgeting when income changes from month to month. And the swing in income can be drastic, since your clients really don’t owe you anything except to pay you for work you’ve done.

1. When you find your rhythm, there’s great freedom in when and how long you can decide to work. I tend to do my best work in the evenings so I concentrate on being ready then more than earlier in the day. I go out to lunch at least twice a week, and if I need to get something else done during day hours it’s pretty easy to just go get it done.

2. You can decide how you want to dress. Even if you work out of your home for yourself, since it’s your business you might decide you won’t want to wear a tie except on special occasion. When you work from home you don’t even have to go that far.

3. You might have some great years. For a 3 year period in the mid 2000′s I made more money than I’d made in the previous 14 years total. You pretty much get to set your rate and if you can get enough people to pay it, or even a long term contract, life is really sweet. And even when things aren’t at that level you still have many other options in figuring out how to make money for yourself. Freedom does come at a cost, but sometimes that cost is reached pretty quickly.
 

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell

The White House announced that their $787 billion stimulus package has actually created almost 683,000 jobs in the first quarter of this year.

Well, that’s not quite what they said. They said the package “funded” that many jobs, and that’s an important distinction to make. In other words, these are jobs that were either created or protected by the money. It’s kind of the same way that unemployment figures are given; there’s no real way to know who’s still unemployed once people drop off the rolls, so they can only give you the figure based on how many people are collecting unemployment at the time.

It’s not that I’m looking to negate what stimulus money has done, because I believe the federal government should have a hand in helping some communities get things back together. I am not on the side of Rep. Darrell Issa from California, who was quoted as saying “The American people reject the Administration’s claims on stimulus job creation and the flawed economic theory behind the assertion that massive deficit spending would fix our economy.”

I still believe that there needs to be some sort of way to stimulate the economy so that real new jobs can be created and get people working once more. Some types of jobs aren’t coming back, but it doesn’t mean we, the United States, don’t have enough ingenuity to come up with the next big thing. And while we’re at it, we can’t hurt some of those industries that we rely on now, such as every agricultural group that grows or takes care of something that we benefit nutritionally from on the back end.

I applaud the government for what they’re trying to do so far; now let’s kick it up a notch and really focus on real job creation.

The National Federation of Independent Business came out with a report saying that the hiring of temporary workers is not only up, but is surging. In the last month alone, around 52,000 new temporary positions were filled, and that gives the organization a feeling that, at least for some companies, regular employment might be just around the corner if it follows previous patterns where unemployment was high.

Of course, one of the problems with reporting unemployment figures is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts temp jobs as, well, jobs, which means the drop in the unemployment rate came because of this figure, with nothing indicating whether these temp jobs are full time, contract, or part time. In other words, as I’ve said before, overall unemployment numbers are still misleading.

Something that often happens is that if temp workers do a good job, they’ll get offered permanent work. That works out well for both parties, and the economy as well. The rise in temp jobs means companies have realized that they probably cut too deeply and need some help, and since late fall isn’t usually a boom time in hiring, this might be a significant move that really could mean some good things for employment in the long run.

Of course, it’s also possible that many of these temporary jobs could end after the holidays, especially if they were factory workers who were needed to help boost production or store clerks who were hired to help cover the holiday shopping rush. The overall employment industry will know better come February whether this was just a blip on the radar or if things are finally ready to turn around.

In good economic times, black people suffer greatly in the United States. When unemployment for the rest of the country was around 6%, for black people it was around 11%. For young people under the age of 25, it was around 25%; ironic, right?

Therefore, it’s no surprise that with the country’s unemployment rate being around 10.2%, black people are worse off yet again. Unemployment for young black men under the age of 25 is now at 34.5% and rising. For all young black people, it’s 30.5%. For young black women, it’s at 26.5%, compared to 15.4% for all young women.

The thing is, this time it’s definitely believed to have more to do with race than with education or background. A study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University showed that lower-income white teens were more likely to find work than upper-income black teens, and that even blacks who graduate from college suffer from joblessness at twice the rate of their white peers.

Some studies have shown that black applicants with equal resumes to white applicants won’t hear back from just sending out resumes with what some see as traditional black names at a rate of 72% compared to 36% of traditionally white names. When names are equal, along with either equal or better resumes, blacks hear back in a positive fashion only 50% of the time, while whites will be contacted at around 76% of the time.

So, despite President Obama being in office, some things still haven’t changed. And if the economy stays bad, and areas where blacks have a higher density of the population such as Detroit and Washington D. C. don’t improve, it’s going to get much worse.

Unemployment numbers are high across the country. Many communities have reached double digit figures, and the country as a whole is sitting on 9.8, which means it’s probably going to surpass that figure fairly soon.

I’ve always been a bit leery of unemployment numbers. Unless the economy is humming, I’ve always known that you could add at least 2 or 3 percentage points to unemployment figures at any time. That’s because what most people don’t pay attention to are those people who drop off unemployment and still aren’t working. And that happens frequently.

Just today, CNN printed a story saying that around 7,000 people a day are falling off unemployment because they’ve not had jobs for that long a period of time. Once they fall off, they’re not counted anymore. So, they’re the under-represented, non-counted potential majority in this country, at those kinds of numbers, and it’s scary.

What’s the issue? There are no jobs for most of these people to go to. When you have factories close and lay off thousands, and you realize that most of those folks are unskilled workers, just where the heck were they supposed to find new work? Manufacturing is leaving this country in big numbers, as these weasel companies are finding that they can put up shop elsewhere for less money and less regulation. They say they’re doing it for the consumers here, so they can charge lower prices; yeah, lower prices to a population that doesn’t have a job and still can’t afford the product.

Just to go on the record, I’ve never been against outsourcing to anyone who proves they can do the job better. But if the job is equal, I’m against rewarding companies for moving plants out of the country so they can save millions of dollars. If I had my way, I’d put a tariff on any American company that makes products outside of the United States. I’d do it without hesitation, but I’d make sure that any benefit they got for moving those factories from here was minimal.

Can we, the United States, get away with that? Sure we can. Look at how we’re somehow pressured all these other countries into giving up banking information so they can go after people’s taxes. Some people call these folks tax cheats; I’ve called them inventive entrepreneurs. I would never have done it, but I can see how these guys could come up with it, banking in other countries so they didn’t have to pay taxes on the money. That’s how the system worked, and I wasn’t mad at anyone for figuring it out.

I believe this country has a duty to start protecting the American worker and American jobs. There should be standards set, and there should be tariffs levied. Either that or figure out another way to stimulate business ventures in this country. That’s what stimulus money needs to go to. We need some of those jobs back; we need to give people a chance to get back to work.

Someone tell me why this can’t work.

In a report that should have shocked no one, the Labor Department announced that the unemployment rate went up to 9.7% from 9.4% in August. Job losses beat new jobs for the 20th month in a row. In a year, unemployment has risen from 6.2% to where it is now. I point that one out, just in case someone wants to come along and try to blame President Obama for this.

To its credit, fewer jobs were lost last month, but it’s still going the wrong direction. And, dare I throw it up again, we still don’t know what will happen with the commercial real estate crisis rears its ugly head in the coming months. I haven’t really made a prediction on this one yet, mainly because I’m trying not to scare anyone. However, I’m going to go out on a limb here and hope I’m wrong; by the end of the year, we’ll see unemployment figures around 10.6% nationally. I was going to throw out 11%, but man, I don’t want us to be anywhere near that.

I have a general question to add to this. Supposedly there are all these signs that the economy is improving; what am I missing? Sure, housing starts are up, but foreclosures are still occurring at a steady rate. The stock market has supposedly recovered, but isn’t it back down around 9,300 after hitting 10,000 again? And let’s not forget that we’ve got all these bank closings, and now we’re up to 89 after today. Iowa saw it’s first bank closure in a decade, and banks in Missouri, Illinois, and Arizona also closed.

Man, this is bad, and I don’t know what’s going to eventually turn things around for good. Actually, I did have a plan years ago that I thought might work, but if no one was going to listen to my idea on a health plan for America, why would they listen to me on some ideas to help turn the economy around, and also help the country in other ways?

Well, when America is ready, I’ll be here. Happy Labor Day, folks!

This was somewhat unexpected, but it was reported early this morning that unemployment dropped by .1%, down to 9.4%, for the first time in a year. Even the number of lost jobs went down, hanging around 250,000. That’s good news, and some analysts are pointing to it saying that it might be proof that the economy really is starting to turn around.

I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth, but don’t start counting on buying that new BMW just yet. There are a few things we have to consider that are in these numbers.

For instance, the news reports that a part of the reason they believe some of the jobless numbers are low is because some people who’d traditionally be laid off now are already out of work, so that’s been taken care of.

Another thing to consider is that unemployment only goes so long, so many people will start dropping off, whether they’ve found new work or not. Remember, that figure only counts people who qualify for unemployment compensation.

And third, we still have the pending worry about commercial real estate and the potential loss of upwards of 9 million more jobs if some of those deals aren’t reworked by the end of the year. Personally, I doubt we’d really lose that many jobs if deals weren’t worked out across the board, but the potential is there, so it has to be mentioned.

So, in this instance, since I still know a lot of people who are out of work, I’m not ready to start grasping at straws. I’ll take the number for what it is, and we’ll see if it continues into September.

A poll came out today saying President Obama’s approval rate has fallen below 60% for the first time since he was elected. It was also announced that unemployment went up again, especially in Michigan, which has an unemployment rate over 15%, the highest in 25 years.

In a way, we owe James Carville for what actually captures the mood of the country most of the time with his great phrase in 1992: “It’s the economy, Stupid.” Indeed, it would seem that the biggest issue that any president has to deal with across the board has always been the economy. If it’s bad, a president gets bad marks, and if it’s good, a president gets good marks. That’s why President Clinton had such high marks when he left office with an approval rate of over 60%. Even with his personal peccadilloes, when all was said and done people were living better on his way out than they were when he first got into office.

Of course, anyone with a little bit of common sense knows that the President of the United States usually has little to do with how much of the economy goes. As much as I loved blaming a lot of things on President Bush, he wasn’t the guy who created all those bad housing loans that brought down the housing market, and he’s not the guy who allowed banks to do some of the sneaky things they did. True, I will blame Ronald Reagan for a lot of the deregulation he allowed to be pushed through, which then gave many of these guys the idea that they could do whatever they wanted to, but he didn’t think of the idea himself, then pass it on to them.

Still, I don’t blame people for wanting to take their frustrations out on the President; as President Truman said, “The Buck Stops Here,” and they are the ones in charge. And President Obama will have to take his bit of heat if his stimulus package doesn’t work because he is the one who pushed it through, and it’s hard to believe they didn’t know the economy was worse than it’s turned out to be because many of us who blog about finances knew how bad it was, and some of us had other ideas on healthcare, and some of us have had ideas on how to change parts of the economy, although right now I can’t remember where I put it; I’m going to have to see if I can find it somewhere.

As for the approval rate? I expect it will get close to 54%, then will probably stop there. After all, that’s where it was when he won the presidential nomination, and his core supporters will give him the doubt, and those who were against him before will feel vindicated in saying that they were right in saying he wasn’t ready for the job. Yeah, I’d have handled it differently, like most people would say, but I’m not sure that, based on everything else that’s happened, that I could have changed things all that much either.

Saving the economy is more than a one man job.

In April I wrote a post talking about continuing job losses. Well, it seems that trend is continuing, as it was just announced last week that 44 states had job losses in April, with California losing the most jobs.

How bad was it? California lost 63,700 positions, followed by Texas with 39,500 jobs, Michigan with 38,400 jobs, and Ohio with 25,200 jobs lost. Unemployment rates across the country over 10% are commonplace now, with Michigan the highest at 12.9%, which is no surprise, but Oregon second at 12%, which is a surprise, at least to me.

What has happened, which is either a good or bad thing, is the rash of mass layoffs has drastically slowed down. My thought is that most of the large companies that were going to do it have stopped, and, depending on how GM handles its bankruptcy proceedings, that part may be a thing of the past. Of course, since mass layoffs are considered as any company laying off more than 50 people at once (which I think is a ridiculous figure to start with), then the number dropped by 221 to 2,716. Still, I believe that confidence that things may be ready to start going the other direction will occur when we’re not hearing about these mega corporations laying off people as it’s been.

So, as I asked, where are the jobs? I see that many companies are bringing some people back as “consultants”, where they might get paid close to the same as before they left, but without benefits they save money. However, that’s not the norm, and since there aren’t many jobs that are even low paying jobs (that, plus most people wouldn’t be hired for a job an employer knows they’re overqualified for), what’s the direction that people will take in finding new work?

I’m not ready to try to answer that one, but it gives me pause that people are going to have to think of something. I’ve got an idea; stay tuned for my next post.

Last week, a news story came out indicating that more workers were doing freelance work these days because it was hard for them to find full time work. The interesting statistic to me was that they estimated the figure is around 26%.

I fully understand this, and I’m living it myself. As a consultant, there are times when you’re waiting for your next contract to come through, but while you’re waiting the only thing happening is your money is draining out of your accounts, and you have nothing else coming in.

Freelancing is a way to help supplement that income, and in some cases surpass your previous income. This isn’t a new concept, by the way. Lorel Lengemeyer of Millionaire Maker fame, always encourages families she works with in overcoming their debt to look within themselves, figure out what other talents they have, then work those talents in some fashion, whether it’s working part time for someone else or creating your own business on the side.

As someone who’s become a master of reinvention, I live and embrace this philosophy. I try to never stay stagnant for too long, lucky that when I’m working on a contract that I make pretty good money, and lucky that, when I find something else to do in the meantime, it’s usually helpful enough cash that helps me get through until the next contract comes around.

So, if you’re looking for some contract work, take a look at this post on some freelance sites you might find of interest, or figure out some other things you might be able to do, then go searching for freelance work in those areas. You never know; you might find a new career that you love.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell

We may be ready for some good news, but it looks like the bad news is hanging on, and a lot of it is in the area of jobs.

Yesterday it was indicated that Yahoo would be cutting more positions on top of some already eliminated, to the tune of “several hundred”, which doesn’t sound voluminous for a company its size. Yet, it comes on the heels of UBS (Swiss bank) announcing layoffs of 8,700 employees, Air France-KLM eliminating around 3,000 jobs, and the CEO of Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, stating that either the unions of Chrysler drastically reduce labor costs, or they’ll back out of the deal of buying into Chrysler, which, if the deal isn’t made, will probably have to declare bankruptcy. He had already said that if Fiat bought into Chrysler that some plants would close.

You want more? I know the answer is no, but we might as well see what’s coming. Discover Financial Services is eliminating 500 jobs. Hallmark Cards is eliminating up to 750 jobs. Lufkin eliminated 10% of its job force. That’s just for starters.

New York state is planning on eliminating over 4,000 positions. Many other states will be losing jobs as their economies are in despair. Washington state just announced their unemployment figure is up to 9.2%; it’s probably going higher, unfortunately.

All that, and it’s tax day; great times, America. The worst thing anyone could do today is not file their taxes. Paying them is another story. Supposedly the IRS is saying that if people file, they’ll give them a break if they can’t pay those taxes today. All they really want is someone to inform them and then they’ll work with you. They say just pay something if you can.

Wow, a kinder, gentler IRS? I guess even they know one can’t get blood from a turnip. Hang in there, world; good times really are just around the next bend.

We all know what’s going on with job loss here in America. It’s frightening, and it seems like there’s no end in sight.

So imagine my surprise when I read a CNN story earlier today that said around 70,000 factories in China have closed, eliminating over 20 million jobs. The overwhelming majority of these workers were unskilled former migrant farmers, who moved to communities to work at the factories because they could make a lot more money and live a better life than what farming gave them.

China wasn’t prepared for anything like this, and didn’t have an unemployment payment process in place because they’ve never thought about it before. However, they’re working on a plan to pay more than 74 million people, as they’re including low income people in the mix, the equivalent of between what converts to $15 to $22 dollars, as some of these factory workers were making the equivalent of $10,000 a year at the upper levels.

Sometimes it’s hard to even begin to think about what’s happening in other countries because of the problems we’ve been having here. It’s no wonder that people around the world keep looking to see what the United States is going to do. However, supposedly the Chinese are more used to savings their money and not spending frivolously, as opposed to Americans. I suppose we’ll see about that, as many of these people, who’ve never really had to worry about finding jobs before, will see what it means to hit the unemployment line.

As most of the financial market is waiting for what’s expected to be dire financial reports from retailers, most of the rest of the country is wondering what the fallout could possibly be as it pertains to unemployment. There have been some speculation that over 3 million jobs could be at stake if many large retail chains decide to call it a day, which could see national unemployment rates skyrocket into double digits, a figure that hasn’t been since since the 1980′s, when, for a 10 month period of time, the unemployment rate averaged around 10.4%.

As of November, the national unemployment rate was 6.5%, a drastic increase from last year at the same time, when it was 4.5%, but some areas of the country are already experiencing historically high unemployment rates, such as Yuma, Arizona, sitting at 17.9% in November, and El Centro, California, at 23.4%. For areas that have a population of at least a million people, Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich., and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., reported the highest unemployment rates in November 2008, both at 9.5%.

It’s pretty much started already, as the ADP employment index, released earlier today, showed that around 693,000 jobs were lost in December. That’s a staggering figure, and scary at the same time, because there doesn’t seem to be any business or business types that are going in the opposite direction at the same speed. And, unfortunately, every time a report like this comes out, the stock market takes a nosedive, slightly strange because often, when companies announce layoffs, those stocks increase.

Where will it end? No one is really sure, but if, after the major fallout that’s expected to occur, it doesn’t turn around fast, or at least stabilize, it could affect quite negatively the financial stability of both the stock market and the United States for the rest of the year.