---Workers are no longer employees but a commodity---It is matter of businesses not hiring rather than the actual need for and availability of work. US economy is performing moderately well to create opportunity for work, but permanent jobs are not being created. This is more a matter of the changing culture of the US economy and work environment over the last few years. “Temp Jobs” v. Employment: Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time visiting industrial properties with my old partner. He is an owner of several properties. The experience was informative in several areas. A big US global conglomerate had reconfigured its workplace to deal in effect with two separate classes of workers: those actually employed by the company and then those that it brings in through a temporary employment agency. There are separate entrances, independent restroom and break facilities as well as different identification cards. Of course, the pay, job benefits and terms of employment are also very different. The “temporary” employees are frequently brought in by a third party and tend to but are not necessarily less skilled- they reminded of the status of farm workers toiling fields a generation earlier as unorganized labor. Businesses hire such temporary workers overwhelmingly for economic rationale, lower salary and few benefits if any, as indicated. The big companies also can forego traditional loyalty and job security commitments. Relocating Workplace as Means to Shred Older or Longer Serving Employees: There has also been a tendency for big conglomerates to move from one location to another to shed permanent employees and then hire new temporary workers at the relocated sight. A few of the old permanent employees would follow the job, but whether family/community ties, school age children or some other consideration, the permanent employees gradually dissipate to the point where temporary workers are now in a majority in many workplaces. Conscious Strategy on Global Scale: The US employment environment is transforming from real jobs to temporary workers, (even if temporary may be defined in years). It is the remerging view of workers increasingly as “commodity” rather than employees. It is part of conscious strategy. Demand for Skilled Labor: There are areas of the US economy where there is a deficiency of qualified workers. In several situations I have witnessed a company offering overtime from employees over weekends – a $1,000 Saturday bonus for a defense contractor for one day of overtime and still not enough takers. Many such employers are trying to refrain from hiring . They favor keeping their base workforce small, less benefits and less commitments in favor of “bonuses” and overtime for the leaner work force. US no Longer Country of Job Mobility? There are also areas of US geographically where workers are lacking. However, worker mobility is no longer as easy as it was before. Many working families are two working parents – a new jobs might not be waiting for both in some new oil boom town. With home prices slumped, it is no longer so easy to sell existing houses and still be able to pay-off the mortgage. Also, with proliferation of credit scoring agencies and now ever tighter standards, workers seeking to relocate may not be able to meet credit requirements for new rents or maybe the new job itself, (which increasingly includes credit as well as things like drug testing and “health standards”). What used to be one of America’s great strength’s – job/labor mobility no longer is. Most other advanced economies workers are also offered more effective retraining and relocation options, including through still vibrant labor unions and employer-labor cooperative arrangements. Your Job May Still be There but is Redefined as Consultant/Independent Contractor: The new US work methodology – work but no real job – is affecting both white and blue-collar workers. White collar workers are more likely though to define their situation as “consulting” or even opt to open up a small business – even if such is no more than now an outsourcing of their old job. Outsourcing may in fact not be so much your job going overseas as being redefined outside the bounds of traditional employment. The work may still be there, but the job description has been changed to be performed by a non-employee. It may even be you doing the same job or more accurately work, but now you are without the benefits or job security. Benefits are Gone: This also has significant implications for US public policy on such things as health insurance and other benefits including unemployment. No longer are such linked to your job. You either forgo or bear the greater expenses directly through private contracts. In addition, underemployment is a consequence you bear as contractor, rather than perhaps your onetime employer, as more slack in productivity downtime is passed to the worker/contractor. This also increasingly evolves into a society of haves and have-nots. (READ: “Global Recession: Best of Times-Worst of Times” - diplomaticallyincorrect.org/films/blog_post/global-recession-best-of-times-worst-of-times-by-ambassador-mo/36338). That is the impetus for an ever-broader sense of insecurity and unfairness. Global greed is not a myth but an increasingly applied global strategy in employment. Occupy Wall Street is the tip of an iceberg of a rapidly evolving relationship between workers, work and business which addresses labor more as commodity. You can place responsibility on corporations, but the environment, regulatory and otherwise, needs to be readjusted by governments/policy makers for our economies and business to grow jobs rather than just create work. READ – “Guaranteeing Minimum Health Benefits & Employment/Income?” - diplomaticallyincorrect.org/films/blog_post/guaranteeing-minimum-health-benefits-employmentincome-money-flash-by-ambassador-mo/38385 By Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey

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