The President Can Not Fix This Job Economy

It falls to us, the US Citizens.

A few months back, I was trying to come up with a way to get everyone back to work and get the economy on the healing track within 6-months or so. My idea is a huge risk but with some care, patience, and faith; it is doable. If all the small businesses with 50 employees and less, if they hire one person (under experienced or over experienced), within a few months the economy could be on the healing trend. Now, I’m sure some of you are saying “I can not afford to hire anyone right now, I’m struggling to get my current staff paid.” Well, yes, I completely understand that, but the US economy will crumble if we don’t do this hiring push. With the 9.7% increase in the US population since 2000, the job market has not included them on any level.

Now here are some numbers. As of 2010; there was/are 24,159,279 Million businesses in the United States. Of those; 22,719,144 Million have less then 50 employees. There are roughly 20+ million United States Citizens unemployed. The businesses that have over 50 employees would have to double their staff numbers to make any kind of dent in the job market. The 'new' numbers below is if each sector chose to hire all the unemployed.

Businesses with employees (# new employees/business)
• 381,067 thousand businesses employee 50-99 employees (55≤ new)
• 209,574 thousand businesses employee 100-249 employees (97≤ new)
• 57,495 thousand businesses employee 250-499 employees (350≤ new)
• 24,432 thousand businesses employee 500-999 employees (850≤ new)
• 21,099 thousand businesses employee 1,000-4,999 employees (990≤ new)
• 3,382 thousand businesses employee 5,000-9,999 employees (600≤ new)
• 5,027 thousand businesses employee 10,000+ employees (400≤ new)
(http://www.manta.com/mb)

Now, the number of working employees vs. the unemployed is a jungle of crazy numbers that makes no sense to those who have better things to think about. So instead, here are some other numbers that will mean something. In the 2000 census, there was 281,421,906 Million US Citizens. In the most resent 2010 census, there was a 9.7% increase, making it 308,745,538 Million US Citizens. The difference is 27,323,632 Million Citizens. The rough estimate of the unemployed is around 20+ Million. The number of homeless is unknown. What I see here is that the businesses have not made adjustments to bringing in more staff in order to keep the over all economy rolling. Staying at 7 employees with 2 owners for the life of the business is no longer possible.
(http://2010.census.gov/news/releases/operations/cb10-cn93.html)

Now, the small businesses can’t add someone every year and stay below the 50 staff numbers forever. That just means some of those new experienced employees can open their own small business and keep the economy rolling. But this country must have small business to keep the foundation strong. Okay, still wondering where the extra money will come from? The small business is a Family of sorts. See if everyone would be willing to take a small pay cut to add another person the roster. Promote someone within the business and bring him or her in on the entry level. The family of staff could possibly come up with a way to make it all work out. Ask Them!

I wish I could say that small businesses who have less then 5 employees could be exempt from this hiring push, but those business numbers are 17,132,948 Million. The best part of being under 5 employees, you would only have to hire 1 employee.
Unfortunately, the cost of training new staff is a dollar number that is never recovered; thus the huge risk of bringing someone in who has just a fraction of the experience needed or even too much experience. The best part is, who ever you brought in, will learn the job willingly. There are so many people who want to work so badly. Will it be scary for the small business owners, most defiantly! The positive outcome from this risky move is that the unemployed will be spending money again after the bills, which means the economy will slowly start to recover.

The major problem I see is that the more complicated we make it, the harder it is to concentrate on the basic issue at hand. The beautiful part about this move to hire 1 person, we don’t need permission from our government. Is this a perfect solution, no, but it has loads of potential and doing nothing is going to destroy us from the ground up. We, the small business are the ones on the ground, have all the control. It is up to us as individual businesses to save this Country of ours. Sadly, big business have forgotten that their money and experienced staff comes from the 22Million small businesses in this country. We fail; big business will be falling in our open graves… Small Business is the structural foundation in this country.

Now, I have left out anything beyond the numbers. Basically, there is no race, creed, and political party in the foundations of small business. Small business is family born, family run, neighborhood supported. All the neighborhoods stand next to each other create a structural foundation for this awesome country to stand upon. The less time we spend looking for holes in this idea, the more time slips by and weaker we become.

Now I know that I keep adding myself as a current business owner. Sadly, I’m not. I was once and now just one of the unemployed. I write this with my own fear of bringing in someone into my once solo-operated business. On the same note, I would also get pure joy in training someone in my small business that they could take with him or her on their next adventure.

(as I reread this, I will make corrections to my crazy errors.)