Ok, What about home forclosures and small business closings. We see Landry's Garage is vacant and a few new business stores in Central and Northern also vacant. Asking because though uinemployment does not seem to change does not mean those becoming newly unemployed are not making up for those no longer able to collect through benefit exhaustion. I know I'm still hearing and seeing cuts in the work force as well as a reduction in hourly employment hours. Ask those at the Retail and Grocery Stores how things are.

I'm hearing of people who have recently lost their jobs or they have moved/outsourced!

I am aware of people with 2 part-time jobs , no benefits.Bumped into a few who had their jobs outsourced to India. The tech companies are hiring , but no here, just collecting resumes and hiring or outsourcing jobs to Southeast Asia. Want to retain the jobs , stop the companies from outsourcing. If you are trying to blame Obama you are missing the whole thing. He's not doing the outsourcing . It's the CEOs trying to maximize profits and not pay benefits . Thank goodness we have Romneycare here. Corporations could care less. They are destroying America from within.

When they calculate these statistics, are they based only on those currently collecting unemployment, or do they include the many that have already exhausted their benefits? MA residents already receive fewer weeks because we are doing so much "better" than other states.

Tyler,
I did not see anyone blaming Obama, and to try to blame companies, is missing the point. Next time you buy a TV or some consumer product look at the label, it it is made in China do you put it back. Outsourcing is not new and there are many contributing factors and do not forget to put unions in the mix. What I am tired of is people who want to blame CEOs and forget that it is not just big rich companies that ourtsource jobs; many of small companies do so as well to stay in business.

Mike: few things you ought to get straight. you don't have any problem seeing American workers get sold out. You're retired on a nice cushy military pension compliments of the government you like to badmouth every chance you get, not in the labor pool. Perfectly content with letting jobs go overseas.
There are a number of ways , no easy solutions- repeal tax deductions for companies outsourcing, provide investment and employment credits for staying here;incentives to repatriate profits; provide R&D incentives to develop businesses here and keep an eye on the corporate creeps. It's called government partnering with the private sector. it's not socialism. the govt does not own the modes of production ; the company does. Surely you learned that in business school.

Tyler,

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with Iron Mike. First, my comment was directed only at the article and the comments to that point. Second, also in agreement with Mike, no one gets a bonus to outsource jobs. Companies have moved jobs for years to avoid high employment costs. Why do you think many jobs left the Northeast years ago to hard south. Unions are one of the reasons. Tyler, again, you may not want to actually try and understand basic issues, but CEO's are not the only ones who have a job if a company survives, other people do as well. I will again ask you to look at all the clothes in your closer and all the products in your house and get rid of everything that is not stamped with made in the US. I dare you.

Both of you:
Ron: apparently we don't have enough exporters. The commies are beating us because their government participates . You may not like that, may not fit into the pure capitalist model, but it works for China; even you admit that . You recognize the problem , but are unable to solve it.Regulations are a red herring and corps already pay an effective tax rate of about 7-8% , not the nominal 35%. You can eliminate all the regulations and bring corporate taxes to zero, and CEOs will still go overseas for the cheap labor. As far as looking around goes, look at the decimated middle class here. Take a good look.
Mike: not worth the time anymore with your obnoxious,disrespectful , demeaning comments. The fact that you misinterpret ' socialism" is the first big tip off. Get educated if you want to throw the term around. For the record i'm in favor of a mixed economy with government participation . The current flawed model is not working. As far as pittance of a pension, get an MBA next time.

Tyler,
Like many, you can not deal with realty. If you think we have pure capitalism, think again. We have the government involved in all aspects of the economy now. Also, I never said regulations were the reason for companies seeking to lower costs. It is something all companies do and again Tyler, it is not just big companies that export jobs, it is across the board. When the textile industry moved south at left Lowell and Lawerence behind, it was becasue companies chased cheaper labor and lower energy costs. When companies like the auto industry and the computer industry started exporting jobs, and started buying components from foreign suppliers, it was to stay in business. You still have not accepted that basic thrust of my comments, Tyler until you can tell me you only buy American, you are a hypocrite.

Ron: I did not infer that we are a pure capitalist economy. I suggested that we are a mixed economy that involves government participation. If that was not clear, it should be now.
My take the govt needs to get more involved , because it's not working now. Subsidize industry like China does . Play their game. Your approach has not worked.the definition of dumb( not that you are) is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In that context, I would suggest that you are the hypocrite, not me ( to use your language).
To get off the insult swapping, your solution would be what?

Learn how to compete. When has a government program really worked. Any I called you that because you like many enjoy low cost goods. You have not yet addressed the basic issue. I ask you one more time, do you put your money where you mouth is. Do you only buy American?
You can't deal with the issues I have raised. We are now part of a world economy, and we need to learn the new rules.
I can remember when we all thought the Japenese had all the answers and we were going to be swept away. The advantage we had was innovation. If we want to compete we need to spend money on education and retraining the work-force.
China will have it problems as well in the future as their costs increase and they lose the competitive edge in pricing.
What works in China will not work forever.

"Spend(ing) money on education and retraining the work force". Sound like more taxes and government involvement. I agree. Hope you are not going to complain then about paying more taxes unless you think there is a free lunch there. Sen. Elizabeth Warren was right. Infrastructure to bring products to market, public secondary education that is affordable, not $35,000 a year at BC. yes, subsidies and credits, lower the corporate rate a few points . I don't mind. Notice the trend here ( you included)?Ergo, government involvement.
Your rhetorical question: "'When has a government program ever worked" . Ask China, works pretty good there you admit. So I guess you answered your own question. I would also play with selective tariffs thru the WTO, aggressively correct monetary exchange manipulation like egotistical Trump suggests.
looks like i'm offering more solutions . the question was directed at you, though. It is tough to learn how to compete when the playing field is slanted because countries like China and India fund their private companies- more government , though, so that has to be a turnoff for you and that other guy. It works, dude.

Of course no one buys exclusively American, not even you. Ricardian economics is fine with me. You yourself just mentioned that " we are now part of the world economy".

Tyler,

I am not the one complaining about outsourcing jobs, you are. Why do you not buy American, the answer is simple, you want low cost goods.
As far as education, don't get me started about the how cost of college when places like Harvard sit on 33b in endowments pay their professors 350,000 and charge 75,000 to attend law school. EW does not have a clue. By the way if you think it costs 35,000 to go to BC look again, it is 55,000. Get the information before you talk. The real issue is not at that level though, it is at the CC level and the HS level, our taxes already pay for that.
China is not the US or have you not noticed. What works there is not going to work here. And by the way let things take a while and see if the system is still working in China in 10 years. The solutions you are offering are not solutions at all.
The bottom line, outsourcing is a fact of life and the only way to combate it is to drive the costs of imports up, if you are ready for paying more for everything you buy, let's do it. Protectionism will not work, Tariffs will not work, better goods lower costs, technology advances work.

China plays with different rules, but that is not what causes outsourcing, jobs go to South America, Mexico, India and the pacific rim countries and have for years. In the last century jobs left MA for NC and other southern states for the same reasons.

You're all over the map here. You still have an edge in your remarks. Private college educations are expensive for an assortment of reasons, not just professors salaries any more than extravagant CEO salaries. China does play by different rules- national healthcare, free higher education, subsidized housing make up for the lower wages. It is working for them. You can't argue with the results. I'm not waiting 10 years to see how things go, and I am not accepting American job loss through outsourcing. Obviously you have not been downsized. If you did you would have a sense of urgency. It's a formula for defeat. I offered my solutions and I stand by them.
If we had a single payer healthcare system like the rest of the industrialized world, companies could get out of that business and concentrate on their core business without worrying about paying healthcare benefits which affects their bottom line and ability to compete.
The difference between us- you're status quo , and I want immediate results through change in direction, and am willing to try new economic approaches .

Tyler,
Decisons made in haste rarely work out and please assume nothing, I worked for years in a company that got beat to death by japanese companies.

Your solutions will not work and I am not saying wait 10 years, jobs have been leaving for years, it is not a new thing. I do not blame Obama and I do not blame CEO's. I say there are a lot of factors, unions, high wages, bad workmanship, poor education systems in math and science, that did not happen overnight and will not be fixed overnight either. Band-aids and poorly thought-out fixes will not work. I am not for the status quo, I am not for quick fixes that try to manage a complex issue either.

Ron: you are for the status quo, as much as you fail to recognize it. Your words and formulations give you away. the companies got "beat to death" by the Japanese because Japan subsidized their electronics industry, bought out the American companies , stole their patents, copied the technology . That ok with you? China is doing the same thing now. I don't like outsourcing to India . You like that?
I want some economic changes . You prefer to sit back and let this happen. presumably you learned from japan but it does not show. Your way? we lose.

They beat us on price because we were plagued by unions and higher wages thus higher costs, please stop making assumptions about things you have no knowledge of. If you think american companies do not copy, you are naive as well.
I never said I like outsourcing, but you can not legislate it away, and as long as we all buy cheaper foreign goods it will not change. If I follow your logic lets make their products more expensive and even the playing field, I prefer to get better at what we do and that is innovate. I love it when someone decides based on their own comments that they have all the answers. You do not know me and have no idea what I have learned. What I do know is you have not once been able to counter the basic truths, companies follow cheap labor and have for years.

Also, you seem to not understand the difference between outsourcing and foreign companies. Outsourcing is not the sole reason we are losing the battle, some of the companies beating us in the market are foreign companies. I guess we should just tell them to play fair and increase their costs. China and Japan did not and do not have unions. I would suggest you consider this as a factor as well as CEO compensation.
Tyler, please quit making assumptions and deal with the facts. I noticed you have not commented about the high costs of college and the relationship to salaries for instance. I know that seems like an attack on your favorite senator EW.
Wake up Tyler and look around, it is just not the big bad CEOs who have caused the problems with the economy

I have proposed about 7-8 solutions ( from healthcare to subsidies , to more investment credits) . You ignore them and claim I do not deal in facts.
Maybe you should wake up. It is about the third time you have suggested i do that. think that adds to the conversation? Professor's salaries are not the point. Education is a labor intensive profession and of course that component will comprise the majority of costs. Harvard is not a representative example. It is an extreme- probably the most premier university in the world, the world.
CEOs are doing a poor job. They are a major part of the problem. Their allegiance is to the buck , not the country. The difference between you and me is that although we both recognize that cheap labor is a prime cause , you are willing to accept it as a cost of doing business and I am not. and don't have me go through my litany of positive solutions . You have provided none.
Unions have made concessions . You are living in the past

Mike: then I'd turn out just like you, bitter, sarcastic, pompous . I like Niki ( she won 65% to 35%) she's doing a great job. The problem would then be with getting the Tea Leaves in Congress to put Country First for a change, before you're talking Chinese to claim your cheap goods at Wal-Mart.

People who have had there heads stuck in the sand for thirty - forty years would want to and do blame our current President for the past "Congressional Decision Makings" on our current economic dilemmas. Out sourcing employment jobs for cheaper labor is not by far "NEW", nor will it go away until places like China become competitive enough to show we can do the same production for less here. If anything President Obama has reached out to high tech companies to look into ways to make a better product cheaper here in the U.S.A. but it takes time and it takes big company initiatives to research and change. As for small business and family owned business. We tax the crap out of them, we force medical plans on them keeping them at bay to make for affordable hiring, and when we are not doing that we are dicouraging small business growth in commerial zoned areas through sub-zoning laws that impede growth and employments. Any business plan showing feasability to forfill need should be more than welcome not turned away because of that building is not zoned for that or that property is mnot zoned for that yet it is zoned "COMMERICAL". Chelmsford is arse backwards and gets kicked there often.

Tyler,

I have responded to your comments and solutions and they will not work. I also stated the reason our company lost out was pricing, not stealing patents and by the way are we worried about Japan anymore. I would say in the end the state support of the companies did not work. As far as Harvard being the example, it is the same for any private school now. Tuitions of 55,000 are the rule. Maybe you should actually have some facts behind your opinions. I raised the example of salaries because you said, EW salary was not a factor in the high tuition at Harvard. You may want to remember your own statement. The bottom line is this, we will never agree.
The underlying article was about unemployment, this is not exclusively driven by outsourcing. It is a function of world-wide competition and by the way, we have to compete in other countries so protectionism tariffs have no effect in those markets, changes in the job market and finally outsourcing. My point is that this is noting new, it has happened before and the market adjusts and blaming CEOs is not the answer. I will close with this, as long as you as well as me, buy goods made elsewhere based on price, you can't complain.

Ron you should just give up, you will never win the debate. Tyler, will never concede even one single point despite evidence to the contrary. Why waste your time.

Here's another misunderstood fact in employment. We argue that jobs are leaving, being cut, or fail and it is because of competition, or lack of need or demand for the product, even quality is based upon product needs and demands. Garbage made products do not sell unless priced to sell as garbage. We as a nation of people have more say than government. We do direct how business proceeds and changes because of our demands and needs. Look at the big Banks like Bank of America. When the people were heard and seen closing there accounts over fee increasing. What happened? When our own Government does not like what another country does they sanction it. We as a nation can tell business we want American made or we "BOYCOTT" them. Yes it's harsh and can threaten jobs but most businesses who depend upon sales to gain large capital income and stock values want to stay in business and they would listen seeing profit drop out the bottom. We as a people need to demand jobs be brought back into America and not rely on our Government to initiate these changes. WE WANT MADE IN AMERICA!!!