Unemployment Rate Continues to Drop in Tennessee

From Governor Bills Haslam - Tennessee’s unemployment rate is continuing to break records. For the fourth consecutive month, we saw a historic low in the unemployment rate with 3.0 percent for September­­­. Even more remarkable: the unemployment rates in all 95 counties dipped below 5 percent for the first time ever. We’re proud of these numbers for Tennessee, but even more proud for what these numbers mean for the hard-working people of our state.

When the unemployment rate is low and job growth is high, it means that Tennesseans like Ricky, who works for Smith &Nephew in Memphis, can have high-quality jobs and better plan for the future. The story of Tennessee’s low unemployment rate is really the story of Tennesseans who are part of our state’s workforce.

An International Spotlight on Tennessee
October saw thousands of new jobs come to Tennessee from companies across the world, solidifying the Volunteer State’s place as one of the top destinations in the United States for direct foreign investment.

Earlier this month, I traveled to Japan and South Korea with Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe to meet with leaders of companies looking to invest business in the Southeast. When we pitch the benefits of locating operations in Tennessee, it’s clear that our state has become a leader in the Southeast for attracting foreign companies to invest in our workforce. While in Tokyo, Commissioner Rolfe and I visited with an old friend who certainly knows what Tennessee has to offer: U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty, who led the Department of Economic and Community Development during my first term.

The trip also gave us a chance to meet with and thank the companies that are already investing in Tennessee. We toured the DENSO headquarters in Kariya, Japan only a few days after announcing that the company would be investing $1 billion and 1,000 jobs in Blount County. Maryville will now be home to DENSO’s primary manufacturing center in North America. We also visited with leaders from Hankook Tire Co. in Seoul, South Korea. The following week, we welcomed Hankook executives in Clarksville to celebrate the grand opening of the company’s manufacturing facility, which is bringing 1,800 new jobs to Middle Tennessee.

On October 5th, we announced that German manufacturer Hörmann would be bringing 200 jobs and a $64 million investment the Sparta area. Announcements like this demonstrate that Tennessee is making the case to bring new business here, and as companies invest in Tennessee, our state is seeing a return on those investments.

Other highlights from October:
--Last week, Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker joined me at the Economic and Community Development Governor’s Conference in Gatlinburg. They both have a long history of helping to transform our state and making Tennessee the economic leader that it is today.

--A week ago, I met some of the inspirational graduates of the Dobyns-Bennett High School Transition School to Work program, which connects students with disabilities to jobs in the local area. I toured Food City in Kingsport where Caleb Peters, a graduate of the program who works at the grocery store, presented me with the Employment First Task Force report. The task force is focused on removing barriers to employment for those with disabilities and ensuring that any Tennessean who wants to be part of our state’s workforce has that opportunity.

--Crissy and I joined Commissioner John Dreyzehner in Jackson earlier this month for the fall tradition of flu shots. As I do every year, I encourage all Tennesseans to head into the annual influenza season with the protection of a flu shot.

--We made a push earlier this month to recruit volunteers to serve as Tennessee Promise mentors. Working with a Tennessee Promise student as he or she begins her first year of college is a rewarding experience and one that doesn’t require a major time commitment. I hope you’ll join the thousands of mentors who have already volunteered and sign up to be a part of Tennessee Promise.

Thank you for your interest in our work. If you have any feedback or just want to be in touch, email me at bill.haslam@tn.gov.

Bill

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AEI event; putting faith to work: Lessons from faith-based organizations that help Americans get jobs.

While the workshops and seminars of American Enterprise Institute may not be of interest to the average casual observer of the news, for those who are policy wonks, legislators, academics, advocates, or work in a particular field, American Enterprise Institute is a great resource.

Last month I attended the Governors Housing Conference, an annual event for those working in the field of affordable housing in Tennessee and the opening plenary luncheon featured Ed Pinto of the American Enterprise Institute. He spoke about proposed comprehensive mortgage finance reform and Sen. Bob Corker’s bi-partisan legislation to reform the funding of mortgages.  He also highlighted a 15-year Wealth Builder mortgage product designed to promote sustainable homeownership by directing more of the monthly payment toward principal, arguing the traditional 30-year mortgage was not the best way to promote homeowership or build wealth.

It is by introducing people to another point of view, that eventual change occurs.  The seeds have to be planted and cultivated. American Enterprise Institute is a respected think tank that leans conservative. They have associates

of the highest caliber, accomplishment, and scholarship.  One often gets the impression that the only people who are engaged in solving problems and care about the less fortunate are liberals. In practice, liberals have the same solution for all problems and that is to spend more money, build a bigger bureaucracy, increase government dependency and redistribute wealth. Often their solutions make the problem worse. The most obvious example is the war on poverty and the plight of African Americans.

AEI specializes in getting people to consider alternative ways of thinking about issues and to consider alternative solutions. In a city like Nashville, where the political power structure is overwhelming liberal, conservatives must be armed with lots of facts to be able to introduce alternative ways of thinking about things and advance ideas. From the way we pick up garbage, to school choice, to welfare reform, to acceptance of peer-to-peer ride-sharing services, what was first an idea of conservative think tanks and scholars is now mainstream.

Whereas in the past one would have had to fly to Washington to attend seminars of the American Enterprise Institute, now their seminars are often live online. While their field of policy studies is broad based and includes everything from defense spending to cultural issues, AEI would be a great resource for those locally wanting to bolster their arguments or gain access to ideas that are "outside the box."  For members of the Metro Council, students in the field of pubic policy or those working to solve the problems of poverty, homelessness, and housing, I highly recommend you get to know AEI.

Here is an announcement of an upcoming online seminar.

Putting faith to work: Lessons from faith-based organizations that help Americans get jobs.

Monday, November 16, 2015 | 12:00 – 1:30 PM (that would be 11Am - 12:30 PM Nashville Time).


Private, faith-based organizations are doing important and innovative work to help connect Americans with jobs and make the labor market work for all Americans.

Description: Many faith-based organizations are doing important and innovative work to connect struggling Americans with jobs, which has potential implications for public policy and charitable communities. Join AEI for a discussion on the efforts of faith-based organizations to connect Americans with jobs and the role that faith and religious communities play in these efforts. A panel with the principals of several faith-based organizations will describe their work and discuss what lessons these efforts may hold for the faith and philanthropic communities, as well as for public policy.

Join the conversation on social media with @AEI on Twitter and Facebook.

Participants 
Robert Doar, AEI
Jo Kwong, Philanthropy Roundtable
Heather Reynolds, Catholic Charities Fort Worth
Shawna Smith, Hope Builders
David Spickard, Jobs for Life
Michael R. Strain, AEI

To watch live online, click here on November 16 at 12:00 PM ET. Registration is not required. Contacts:  For more information, please contact Brad Wassink at brad.wassink@aei.org, 202.862.7197.

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Gallup: The Big Lie of 5.6% Unemployment

I have been surprised about the positive unemployment numbers coming out of Washington. The

official unemployment rate is now 5.6% and that is not too bad.  I, however, still see a lot of unemployed people. I have not seen that things are getting much better and I don't think most Americans feel things are getting much better. Still, I have tended to accept the official numbers.

I once worked for the Bureau of Labor statistics myself and developed trust in the work of the Department of Labor.  My view has been that professional statisticians do not manipulate numbers for political purposes.  When I worked for the BLS, I had a part-time job as a field rep gathering price information over time. This data, along with the data from lots of other people in other places doing the same thing, was used to compute the Consumer Price Index, which is often considered a measure of inflation. I read the information explaining the methodology of the development of the consumer price index, which at my pay grade I did not have to know but I found interesting. While many people would complain about rising prices, I was actually measuring prices and understood how the CPI was developed. I concluded the individuals complaining of rising prices were wrong and the BLS which produced the CPI was correct.

I have pretty much felt the same way about the measure of unemployment as I did the measure of the CPI. I have heard the conservative critics doubt the rosy unemployment numbers and I have not felt that a lot more people were working than before, and yet I tended to assume the unemployment numbers were correct. After seeing the lawlessness of the Obama administration however, and the way the IRS has been used to go after critics of the administration, I have become more suspicious of official information coming out of Washington. Skepticism has slipping into my acceptance of official statistics.

When ideological opponents of the Obama administration question the unemployment numbers, it is easy to dismiss them and conclude that are nit picking and cherry picking data to avoid giving the administration credit for an improving economy. This week, the renowned and trusted Gallup organization came out with a statement by Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup, in which he says the unemployement numbers produced by the government are a "big lie."  The Gallup organization knows a thing or two about statistics.

Gallup's Clifton says, "The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading."

Below are excepts from the article:

If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment.

There's another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you're an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 -- maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn -- you're not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%.  (To read the full article, follow this link.)

One group not counted as unemployed also, is people who are retired.  I have members of my own family who retired early simply because they could not find work.  As a housing counselor, I see people all of the time who are retired but who did not want to retire. After losing a job and exhausting their unemployment benefits, they retired so they could draw social security. If a person looses their job at age 60, it is hard to find a job. After exhausting unemployment, they retire at age 62 when they had no desire at all to retire so early. Since we are experiencing a wave baby boomers entering their early sixties, the number of people in this situation is not insignificant. 

Labor participation rate, persons over the age of 16. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Rather than focusing on the unemployment numbers, a better measure of employment may be that the labor participation rate is down to 62.9%, the lowest in decades. Even that figure however does not count the vast number of people who may have been successful professionals or skilled laborers who are now working for low pay, part-time.

Gallup says only 44% of the American people over the age of 18 have a "good job." Gallup defines a good job as working more than 30 hours a week hours for an organization that provides a regular paycheck.

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Lamar Alexander on his vote against Democratic legislation that would extend unemployment benefits

March 27, 2014 - U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) today released the following statement on his vote against Democratic legislation that would extend unemployment benefits without considering Republican proposals to help unemployed Americans:

"There are many good ideas for helping unemployed Americans find a job, and Republican proposals should be debated and deserve a vote. The Democratic leader has repeatedly cut off amendments and debate on important issues facing our country. We need to offer Americans real solutions to jumpstart our slow economy by liberating the free enterprise system, replacing long-term unemployment insurance with job training and using existing federal education dollars to give low-income families the chance to choose a better school."

Alexander is a cosponsor of the Workforce Investment Act of 2013, bipartisan legislation that would provide approximately $145 million for job training in Tennessee, and was passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which Alexander is the lead Republican. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a more streamlined version of the Senate legislation earlier this year that would consolidate 35 federal programs and create a single Workforce Investment Fund.

Alexander has introduced the Scholarships for Kids Act, which would create $2,100 scholarships out of existing federal education dollars to follow 11 million low-income children to schools they attend. He has also supported efforts to repeal burdensome regulations, such as Obamacare, that make it harder and more expensive for businesses to create jobs.

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Congratulations to Senate Republicans for showing some backbone and sticking together. Unemployment extension fails.

Congratulations to Senate Republicans for showing some backbone and sticking together. The vote to extend unemployment benefits failed to advance in the Senate today with only Republican Senator Dean Heller of Nevada breaking rank and supporting the measure. On January 7th the bill had advanced with six Republicans supporting it. Our own two Senators had been mentioned as possible Republican defections but thankfully neither of them were. When it advanced on January 7th in a procedural vote, Senators who broke ranks to support the bill said they would only vote to pass the bill if language was added to pay for the bill. Democrats refused to pay for the extended unemployment benefits. (Read more about this.)

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Both Corker and Alexander to oppose unemployment extension.

For instance, Tennessee’s two Republican senators — Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker — have come out against the current proposal, even though their state has a higher unemployment rate than the national average. Some GOP lawmakers also want an extension to be paired with measures aimed at creating jobs. (link)

I am relieved and pleased. They had both been mentioned as potential Republicans who would break ranks and join the Democrats in extending unemployment. Rod

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Alexander a "no" vote on unemployment extenstion. Reid says Senate will not consider paying for the extension- no budget offsets.

A majority not simple - Reid told Reid told Fox News that he was unwilling to hear Republican pleas to make the welfare benefits part of a larger deal on spending or to offset the outlay with cuts elsewhere. Reid compared the benefits, which lapsed on Dec. 28, to spending on hurricane relief, etc. “We have never offset emergency spending. That’s foolish.” The emergency, according to Reid, is that “the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.” But that’s not going to get him 60 votes. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said he would vote “no,” expressing frustration that Reid is trying to jam the bill through without Republican debate or amendment. “Unfortunately, the Senate appears to be starting the new year just like the old one ended, with the Democratic leader bypassing committee consideration and cutting off all amendments and debate on an important issue.” If the courtly Alexander is not willing to budge, it seems unlikely that there are four more ready to join Reid’s home-state colleague, Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev. (link)

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Good News: Lamar Alexander appear "likely" to vote against the bill extending unemployment

This from Politico:

That task got a bit more difficult on Sunday afternoon as deal-making Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) joined a growing group of Republicans from states with high unemployment who appear likely to vote against the bill Monday. (link)

Earlier there had been speculation that both Alexander and Corker might join the 55 Democrats and three likely Republicans to push the bill over the top. Please email, call or write both Senators asking them to stand firm and vote against extending unemployment benefits. Follow these links to email them: Alexander, Corker.

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Dear Senators Corker and Alexander: Stand firm, do not vote to extend unemployment benefits.

Dear Senators Corker and Alexander,

This is an open letter, asking you to vote against extending unemployment benefits.

An article in today's Washington Post said both of you were senators to watch as Republicans that might join Democrats and support an extension of unemployment benefits. Please say it is not so.

According to the Post story, there are already three Republicans ready to join Democrats in supporting the extension. They are Senator Heller from Nevada, Senator Susan Collins of Maine and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. If all 55 Democrats vote for the extension and the three named Senators above vote with the Democrats then they only need two more. The post listed nine potential senators who might vote with the Democrats. You two were among those nine.

I know that there are a lot of people hurting and I know there will be hardships if people lose there unemployment. Nationwide, 1.3 million ran out of jobless benefits on Dec. 28, and more will follow. However, I do not see how we can afford to indefinite keep people on unemployment. Our country is going broke. Also, unemployment benefits leads to unemployed people.  Unemployed people will be more picky about the job they will accept if they are receiving unemployment payments. A lot of people will not look for jobs that paid less than what they were making at their old job until they face the expiration of unemployment benefits.

 Many mothers of small children welcome staying home with their children and do not rush to return to work if receiving unemployment compensation. Also, many companies won’t even look at the resumés of the long-term unemployed, so to a certain extent the government is making it harder for the unemployed to find a job due to keeping them out of the job market. Also, we are on the edge of the baby boom retirement wave. How many people would go ahead and apply for social security if they were not receiving unemployment?  I don't know, but I would assume it is not an insignificant number. If those people were out of the job market, the unemployment rate would be lower.

Senators Corker and Alexander, I have voted for each of you and financially supported your campaigns and I have defended each of you to my tea party brethren who deem you insufficiently conservative. Please do not vote for extending unemployment benefits. If you do, I would have a hard time defending that vote. Don't prove me wrong for having been a faithful supporter of yours.

Sincerely,
Rod Williams

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Every Picture tells a story/Numbers don't lie

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Obama Cooking the Books on Jobs Numbers?

The various ways in which the Obama administration is cooking the books does not even take into account the number of people who have retired early due to the inability to find work. It is a fact that older adults have a harder time finding work than younger job seekers. We are on the leading edge of the baby boom and never before has the option of early retirement been available to so many. I have a relative who retired early and is drawing social security. After exhausting his unemployment benefits and still unable to find work he chose to retire. In my job of dealing with people in crisis, I all of the time see people who took early retirement who did not want to do so.

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Congress passed two Veterans Preferance Bills. Don't call them "Jobs Bills."

Yesterday the Senate passed two bills designed to encourage businesses to hire veterans. The bills had broad-based bi-partisan support. The bills are the Returning Heroes and Wounded Warrior Tax Credits, that will give businesses up to $9,600 for hiring veterans who are out of work or who have service-related disabilities.

I support these bills. However, it is incorrect to call these bills "jobs bills," they are "veteran preference bills." These bills will not put a single additional person back to work. The bills will cause an employer to give a preference to veterans over non-veterans. I don't have a problem with that; I support it. Veterans who served their country deserve preference.  However, anytime you give preference to one group, whether it is in college admissions or hiring of firemen, anyone who is not in the preferred group is in the group discriminated against.  Rather than jobs bills, it would be more accurate to call these two bills, "veteran preference bills" or "discrimination against non-veterans bills."

A veterans preference bill can result in an employer hiring veterans at the expense of non-veterans. Tax credits for hiring just anyone would do little to increase employment.  A tax credit would do little to cause an employer to hire an employee he does not need.  A tax credit would serve to lower the cost of hiring employees, but unless an employer needs new employees lowering the cost of labor will not appreciably result in new hires. 

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Exempt Obama's Jobs bill from Davis-Bacon

Today, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson responded to Barack Obama's call for an infrastructure bank:

Barack Obama's call for an infrastructure bank could be worth looking at, but only if all such spending is specifically exempt from Davis-Bacon union wage guarantees, and is accompanied by off-setting spending reductions elsewhere in the bloated budget. Otherwise, it will just be a payout to Obama's big labor political allies in the midst of the worst sovereign debt crisis in history.

This is a great idea! I hope Republicans do not reject President Obama's proposal outright. After he reveals how his proposal is to be funded, I hope Congress will use his proposal as a starting point to create something that will get American's back to work. Republicans in Congress, however, should not accept that spending now will be off set by spending cuts in future years. One Congress cannot bind the spending decisions of the next Congress. While I hope to see Obama defeated as much as anyone, I think President Obmaba is right and we cannot wait 18 months to try and address the unemployment crisis. Also, America's infrastructure is falling apart and their is road and bridge and sewer work that must be addressed and cannot be put off forever.

If Obama is serious about getting Americans back to work and his speech was nothing more than campaign posturing, then he should readily agree to remove Davis-Bacon from any jobs bill. In Nashville, Davis Bacon requires a wage of $12.94 for painters and sandblasters. I bet that in today's economy a contractor could get painters for considerably less than that. Why should the federal government, rather than the market, decide the wage rate paid for every position on a construction project? Exempt projects from Davis-Bacon, put more people to work and get more accomplished for the same amount of money.

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The unemployment rate is up! It is time to cut the minimum wage.

The unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent in November. It went up,  not down. Things are not getting better. These unemployment numbers are not acceptable and Congress needs to take bold action to put people back to work. Instead of taking action to put people back to work however, the Democrats keep trying to raise taxes. Implementing record tax hikes as unemployment rises is just dumb. To stop the unemployment rate from rising higher, Congress should extend all of the Bush era tax cuts for starters. The second thing Congress needs to do it cut the minimum wage.

The Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which for a forty-hour work week is $290, about the same as a week of unemployment benefit. Critics will argue that one cannot support a family on $290 a week, and that is true.  However if one is on unemployment benefits one cannot support a family on $290 a week either. As Congress debates extending unemployment beyond the current 99 weeks of benefits, it should consider any extension tied to a reduction in the minimum wage.

There are people who could be put to work at $5.25 an hour who cannot be put to work at $7.25 an hour. At a lower wage rate, an employer may be willing to invest in training of a low-skilled worker whereas they may not be able to afford to do so at a higher rate of pay.  An employer considering outsourcing jobs overseas may not have to so if he could hire people to do the same work at less than $7.25 an hour  here in America. An employer considering reducing labor cost by automating jobs, may choose to not invest in labor-saving technology if labor rates were lower. An employer faced with the choice of laying off some workers or keeping everyone employed but cutting wages, is limited in cutting wages when the lowest wage possible is $7.25.

A low wage does not have to be the maximum one ever earns, but a low wage is often the first rung on the latter. A minimum wage of $7.25 makes that first rung out of reach for many people. Not everyone who works for minimum wage is supporting a family on that wage. Many families have two wage earners. A second wage earner earning a modest minimum wage, may keep a family from losing their home.  Many of the people who work for minimum wage are young adults still living at home. Working for less than $7.25 is better than not working at all.

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