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"Alabama's jobless rate at highest point in nearly four years"

May's 4.7% remains below U.S. average

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1214036107220520.xml&coll=2

I am not an economist but I do read these reports from all over the country. If all you read is the headline for this article you will leave feeling like 'Oh my God! The sky is falling." But let's take a better look at this.

• "Alabama's jobless rate has not topped the national average in seven years, and that streak continued as the U.S. posted an average rate of 5.5 percent in May, up from 5 percent in April and 4.5 percent in May last year. "

So what does this mean? For the last 7 years we have had lower than average unemployment! When I was in college I was taught that 5% unemployment meant full employment. There will always be some people 'in-between jobs' no matter where you live. We also have a large segment of the population in Alabama that just graduated from college and will be looking for a new job. Working at McDonalds is OK when you are going to school, but when you finally get a degree..., you get the point.

• "In the Birmingham metro area, the work force totaled 538,397 in May, up from 536,997 in April and 532,334 in May 2007. Of those, nearly 20,000 were unemployed in May, up from nearly 16,700 in April and almost 13,900 in May last year."

In May the workforce increased from both April of this year and May of last year. It increased by 1400 jobs from April to May of this year, not significant, but in May we have what are called "seasonal changes." Could that be better? You bet. The cost of gas has a lot of companies concerned. If your company uses oil and/or gas in any fashion to either produce or deliver a product you often have a choice: pay for the energy or pay for the energy (some choice ah).

There is one other choice; you can increase your prices to pay for the increased costs. Sounds good right, nope. You still have to remain competitive. If you keep increasing your prices to reflect inflation or the cost of production you will soon find yourself out of business. Try adding the increased taxes that Obama has promised and you paint a sad story for (especially) small business. Bigger companies will renegotiate union contracts or decrease overall employment. Large corporations will simply move their workforce requirements to India, Pakistan, China, or any country that doesn't tax or legislate them to death. Are you listening Michigan? Look at what the great liberal thinkers have done in Michigan. Is there a recession in this country? Not unless you live in Michigan.

• Don't fall for the liberal line that separates us by class warfare. Income distribution is not what made this country great (read increase the taxes on the rich). Obama wants to add a "Windfall Tax" on the oil companies so he can help the middleclass. He is only sorry that the increase in gas prices came so quick (as in before I am elected?). His plan is that he would then pass this money back to the poor people that need it. This is a great plan! In Europe they call this the "Robin Hood" plan. The problem with this is that once the government gets the money how do they plan on distributing it, and at what cost? I have an idea, we lower the tax, we pay less for oil (gas) and there will be a direct savings for all.

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