Unemployment remains a contentious issue, not just in the United States but all over the world. In fact, according to one polling chief, the next major international war will be one over good employment opportunities.
Why is there going to be a global conflict over lucrative jobs? Well, because the real unemployment rate in the world is 50 percent and climbing, says Jim Clifton, Gallup Chairman and CEO. He defines a good job as one that offers a minimum of 30 hours per week with a regular paycheck.
Speaking in an interview with Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, (via Gallup) Clifton conceded that one of the biggest discoveries by the polling outlet is that “what everyone in the world wants is a good job,” adding that no political leader in the world understands this.
“Of the 7 billion people in the world, there are 5 billion adults aged 15 and older. Of these 5 billion, 3 billion tell Gallup they desire a full-time job. Only 1.3 billion actually have a good job, which means that the real unemployment rate in the world is over 50%,” he said.
“The brutal reality is we’re not creating enough good jobs to meet the will of the world — the global will to have a good job, Not meeting that need will accelerate global instability. My message is that it is possible to turn things around quickly — we just need to get very serious and intentional about it.”
Clifton continued that one of the best jobs in the world to have is when your boss concerns himself about your development, utilizes your strengths each day at work and you know you’re making a considerable contribution to something.
Obama’s Jobless Numbers are a ‘Big Lie’
This isn’t the first time that Clifton has discussed the matter of unemployment.
Earlier this year, the Gallup chief got into trouble when he accused the White House of issuing one “big lie” when it came to the unemployment rate. Writing in a February blog post, he cited the 5.6 percent unemployment as incredibly “misleading.”
“None of them will tell you this: 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,” said Clifton. “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.”
Clifton also noted that the federal government does not include long-term, permanently and depressingly unemployed from its numbers. This means all jobless figures handed out from Washington are inaccurate and do not provide a credible picture of what is really transpiring in the labor market.
“When the media, talking heads, the White House and Wall Street start reporting the truth – the percent of Americans in good jobs, jobs that are full time and real – then we will quit wondering why Americans aren’t ‘feeling’ something that doesn’t remotely reflect the reality in their lives,” Clifton added in his piece. “And we will also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class.”
The labor force participation rate currently stands at a 37-year low with 62.8 percent.
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