Eileen Slovak

Can good old-fashioned hard work, adapting to the changing marketplace and holding Government accountable for how they spend our taxes, save America?

Is anyone buying the Government is going to create jobs story, waiting around for that to happen?  Because here is some home truth about semantics:  the Government does not create jobs.

The US Government is this country’s largest employer and according to:  www.census.gov, in 2011, employed 16.4 million full time employees.  Yes, we pay people to collect this data, so someone should read it.  There is wasteful spending, which our elected officials will hopefully find and cut, over for the next several months, in order to develop a budget plan.

What Government can do for the private sector job market, that’s Joe’s Hardware store or Nancy’s Restaurant or Lou’s Construction company, you get the picture, is decrease tax rates and change regulations to encourage employers of companies and businesses owners to hire more people and in turn, positively affect the jobless rate and stop companies from sending our jobs overseas.

Here’s another interesting statistic, about three quarters of businesses have no employees, they are simply self-employed.  Stats about business from the US Census Bureau

Feel free to e-mail your favorite Senator or Congressperson to ask what they plan to do about the unemployment rate, which according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov, is still 7.9% and translates to 12.3 million unemployed:  Press Release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Meanwhile, I don’t know about you, but I get impatient waiting for someone else to fix things.  I believe Americans want to work right now.  So, how can we fix the problem for ourselves?

I’ve been job searching for several months, but despite having a college degree and ten plus years of business experience, I took a part time job in retail for pathetic pay.  Why?  Because it makes me feel better to be part of the solution, not part the problem, because a paycheck validates worth.  Because giving up is not the American way.

Retailers, who make the bulk of their revenue during the months of November and December, are hiring.  Many people take these positions as second jobs.  Some are working two part time jobs, because for employers, the benefit of part time is not paying benefits, which means they can hire more people.  Still, the hope for employees is that hard work will lead to full-time status or a better job somewhere else.

For example:  last night after work, while buying groceries, I was talking to grocery store employee, W, who has the biggest smile I have ever seen while working two jobs, seven days a week.  W’s wife, is getting her nursing degree and they have two children.  This is how it’s done in tough times, America!  As bad as things are, this is still the land of opportunity.

Aside from retailers, here’s what else I found in Maryland, many employers, some nationwide, are hiring Salespeople, Engineers, Teachers, service people, drivers and healthcare workers.  For unskilled labor, there are several jobs in the service industry.  Healthcare and hospitals are hiring at various levels, even at the non-degree level.   Restaurants are hiring skilled and unskilled labor.

If you have some talent with computers like surfing the internet, companies are hiring people to manage and maintain websites and blogs.  Finding a job might require re-training, adapting, learning some new skills.  It might require working a lesser job to figure out a way to pay for re-training.  This is nothing new.  Our Grandparents did it; our parents did it; we can do it.

Also hiring, the US Government and Government contracting companies, until budget cuts begin.  Proposed cuts, slated to come from primarily from defense, include cutting retirement and medical benefits for Veterans, you know, the people who risked their lives fighting wars, protecting us from harm and keeping America safe from terrorism, which exists regardless of what you call it, semantics again, like the attack on our American Consulate in Benghazi.  If you disagree with defense cuts, feel free to e-mail your favorite Senator or Congressperson to suggest they cut something else.

Then, what do I know, I write for free.  But, at least I’m paying taxes.