How Will The Recovery Get Here?

One of the stories all over the internet is a reprint of an article from the Telegraph, a newspaper in London. The headline says:

Ohio school receives 700 applications for janitor's job
by Tom Leonard

Officials at Edison Junior High School in Perry Township, northeast Ohio, said they had extended the deadline until Monday to accommodate the enormous response.

The full-time position, which came open after the afternoon janitor retired, pays $15 to $16 (10) an hour plus benefits.

Barry Mason, business manager for Perry Local Schools, which runs the school, said he would narrow the field to 30 to 50 applicants for an interview.

He said he was looking for someone who would make a career in the position and not just use it as a stop-gap until the economy improved.

John Richard, the superintendent who will be the janitor's boss, said that many of the applicants were laid-off workers with moving stories about tough economic times.

Donna Croston, 49, said she after losing jobs at two nearby factories that closed.

"This is like a needle in the haystack, but I might get lucky," she said.
In unstable times it is very attractive to find employment that represents some degree of permanence. Public sector job openings exist and need to be filled, however, they are only paid for by private sector taxes.

The health and growth of small business in America is the most important factor in the recovery of our economy. The National Federation of Independent Business, Small Business Trends for February 2009 tells of a mixed state of industry on a national level.

Although optimism fell slightly, 11% of business still reported job openings. 2008 ended with the intent to make major capital expansion at an historic low but those numbers rose in February to 19%. These numbers are in no way indicative of boom times but they are definitely headed up.

How does this effect Californias business owners?

A survey of California small business owners found that:

The states largest employer and biggest generator of net new jobs is not closing out the year on a happy note, according to the latest California Small-Business Conditions report issued today by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation.

Small-business owners are at the center of every states economy, a matter of fact universally known, except in the California legislature.

The report goes on to discuss the business friendliness of Sacramento. The governor was initially elected on a promise to change the business culture of California. Hopes of making California more business friendly and stopping the hemorrhaging loss of companies and the jobs that go with them was of major importance.

Yet, the NFIB survey reports that:

In the March report, Main Street ranked the states business environment a net 16 percent supportive; by the June report that number had dropped to net negative 1 percent; it crept back into the left side of decimal point to a net 6 percent in the September report; and today, it has fallen two points to a net 4 percent. By comparison, Iowa mom-and-pop shops gave their state a net 37 percent supportive rating, which is the nations top rating, and New York had the countrys worst rating, at net negative 1 percent.

Complaints about higher minimum wage expectations, higher taxes and fees, socialized medicine proposals and medical mandates driving up health-care premiums were only a few of the legislative initiatives being proposed. This comes at a time when small business owners are holding on by their fingernails just to survive.

The janitorial job posting was from Ohio, however, the Telegraph article could have been written about any number of job openings in California. With jobless rate at the end of January hitting 10.0%, safe, secure government jobs seem a great plan. But without the private sector to finance those jobs, they can not exist. Ask the many being laid off by the state of California right now.

Growing the states largest employer and biggest generator of net new jobs seems a better plan than that of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs through excessive taxation and regulation. Without that goose maybe the golden state loses its glow.