It Doesn’t Matter Whether Obama or Romney Get In, The World of Work Has Changed for the Worse

Every election, at all levels, and in both Canada and the States, the “j” word crops up as one of the key election issues.

That “j” word is “jobs.”

As Americans gear up for November’s presidential elections, more hype surrounding jobs and job creation creeps into the campaign, as both candidates claim they have a magical method to give the growing unemployed ranks of angry voters a gig.

Every election it’s the same political bullcrap, as global economies continue to falter, amid economic uncertain times.

It doesn't matter if you support President Barack Obama, or his opponent Mitt Romney, neither of their job platforms will work. They both are based on traditional means to stimulating the economy, which in turn usually creates job growth.

Stimulating the economy is important and need be done. But that’s NOT why America – and Canada – isn't working.

It’s because of recruitment firms stealing a piece of the employment pie, as they convince companies large and small that it’s better to hire consultants on a per-project-basis, rather than full-time, salaried, staff employees.

Of course it’s good – for the recruitment firms, which earn their keep by providing these temporary contract consultants. But it’s bad for the consultants, who eventually find themselves out of work and unemployed again when their contracts end.

And all contracts end – that’s the whole nature of contracting. Hiring permanent, salaried, staff employees have no end date to their jobs. However a contractual, temporary, or “term employee” is hired from a specific start date to a specific end date.

Contracts do get renewed, extended, even occasionally renegotiated. But none last forever. And most contractors don’t get complimentary benefits which are granted to salaried staff employees.

That’s part of the sales job which these recruitment firms pull over employer’s eyes to get them to do business with them.

Why pay someone benefits, through the good and the bad times, when you can hire someone hourly, without having to fork out benefits, just for the work that needs to be done?

It’s this lack of job security which has killed the middle class in North America. As the economy sours, and companies terminate or fail to extend or renew their contracted consultants, a mega-huge segment of the population suddenly finds themselves, unemployed, and without any means of providing a roof overhead, food in their tummies, and clothes on their backs.

And because this is such a mega-huge segment of our North American workforce – thanks to greedy recruitment firms more interested in making profits off the backs of hourly contractors than putting people into permanent work situations – as companies axe consultants, they no longer have any money to spend in the economy.

So it doesn't matter how many new products or services are introduced through government incentive programs for business innovation – no one is buying those new products or services. So the economy continues to spiral out of control.

It’s a catch-22 situation which politicians are aware of, but turn a blind eye towards because they don’t want to interfere in the rights of one company to make a buck.

However, they should be concerned, because these recruitment firms have a very negative impact on the economic engines of Canada and the States. Already both countries are less competitive internationally because of the shift in the economy from salaried, permanent staff towards hourly, contracted consultants.

For the past five years, there has been talk in economic circles of changing the international currency used to compare all other currencies. Since the start of the industrial revolution at the turn of the 1900’s, that currency has always been the American “Greenback” Dollar.

As America’s economy slumps lower with every full-time, salaried staff job lost to a recruitment firm’s contracted out consultant, the talk in economic circles is to replace the American dollar with an Asian currency as the new standard for measuring the currencies of the world, as many Asian countries economies are growing.

So wake up Obama, Romney and the rest of you politicos trying to sell voters on the “j” word with useless outdated and ineffective stimulus programs that don’t work.

We need government intervention and incentive programs to encourage companies to hire salaried, staff employees to grow and develop for the long-term. Not casual, contracted out consultants that are here one day, gone the next.

Or else one day, we all will be looking for work.