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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
WWW.CRAINSCLEVELAND.COM
SEPTEMBER 19 - 25, 2011
PUBLISHER/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR:
Brian D. Tucker (btucker@crain.com) EDITOR:
Mark Dodosh (mdodosh@crain.com) MANAGING EDITOR:
Scott Suttell (ssuttell@crain.com)
OPINION
Step up
I
n too many workplaces, people who have been fortunate enough to keep their jobs since the onset of the last recession feel as though they’re running on a treadmill with the speed set at full tilt. They’ve been in an all-out sprint the last couple years to keep up with their own work as well as the work they took on from colleagues who were laid off when the economy went south, but who never were rehired when business picked up again. Here’s a message to bosses on their workers’ behalf: Take some of that cash you’ve been piling up under your reduced cost structures and start investing it in more staff. It’s time for you to step up and do your part to bring down the nation’s unemployment rate, which stubbornly sits in the 9% range. Sure, loads of companies, especially small ones, still are trying to get their legs under them amid a recovery that for many hasn’t been robust. But there also have been plenty of stories (some of which we’ve written) about companies that are rolling in dough now that their sales have rebounded. Many of these employers made drastic cuts to their work forces in 2008 and 2009 because of the dropoff in their business. Two and three years later, they’re reaping big payoffs from those cuts as they hold down job levels by squeezing more output from existing staff. Companies aren’t hesitant to use their stashes of cash to buy other companies and/or buy their own stock. However, they have been slow to add to their employment rolls, in part out of concern about the length and strength of the recovery but also because they’ve got a good cash flow thing going by keeping in check their personnel costs, which for many is their largest variable cost. Howard Schultz, CEO of coffee giant Starbucks, recognizes the hiring lethargy and is trying to do something about it. He is the driving force behind Upward Spiral, which its website describes as a “platform for action” to get the country moving forward. Mr. Schultz wants business leaders to take two pledges: One is to withhold political campaign contributions “until a transparent, comprehensive, bipartisan debt-and-deficit package is reached that honestly, and fairly, sets America on a path to longterm financial health and security,” he wrote in a recent blast email. The other is “to do all we can to break the cycle of economic uncertainty that grips our country by committing to accelerate investment in jobs and hiring” before the end of 2011. Unfortunately, a visit to the Upward Spiral website indicates far more business people are willing to hold politicians’ feet to the fire by depriving them of campaign money than are prepared to commit to adding staff at their companies. As of last Wednesday morning, 21,644 people had taken the “Pledge to Withhold,” while just 3,025 had taken the “Pledge to Hire.” Maybe they need to take the logs out of their own eyes so they can see how they’re contributing to the problem.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
With no middle ground, nation suffers
L
school reconstruction program that was ast week’s visit by President Obama borne from the state Supreme Court ruling to Columbus conjured up all sorts that found our school financing system of conflicting emotions for me, unconstitutional. You may recall that and it should for you as well. our state Legislature and more than one My first thought was that despite governor ignored the charge to remake the losing population as we fight through system and instead went about building this horribly stagnant economy, Ohio new schools and renovating old ones. remains a key battleground state for those Regardless, Ohio’s schools who want to be — or remain — needed to be improved, and president of the United States. BRIAN many probably still do, thus This was President Obama’s 15th TUCKER giving the president a logical trip here, and the Columbus setting for the kickoff of his speech was his first stop after a 2012 campaign. And God nationally televised speech to knows we could use the conCongress to unveil his plan for struction jobs, but then wasn’t economic recovery. that supposed to be the benefit He spoke at an old military of Stimulus I? base high school that had been Analysts noted after the presrenovated to a state-of-the-art ident’s nationally televised learning center, stressing that if speech that he seemed to be throwing only Congress would pass his bill, we down the gauntlet, positioning himself could remake schools across the country to be the one with an answer and leaving and create thousands of construction the mean, old obstructionists (namely, jobs. the Republicans) in Congress to blame if I couldn’t help but wonder if the they don’t “pass this bill.” school was rebuilt with so-called stimulus It’s the same old us-versus-them funds, or was remade under our own
politics that has hurt this nation for years, as ideologues and self-serving officeholders refuse to compromise, all the while ensuring further economic strangulation. The president and his team must be concerned about losing that once-strong Democratic congressional seat in Queens (once held by the now-disgraced Anthony Weiner) to the GOP, and the Republicans sense that this president will remain vulnerable in 2012 if the economy remains stuck in the mud. In the meantime, the president keeps mouthing the same, old mantra about taxing the “rich” — many of whom are small business owners who’ve spent a lifetime building an enterprise that gets them to Mr. Obama’s oft-maligned $250,000 annual income. We had a plan — put forth by a respected, bipartisan commission — to solve many of this nation’s fiscal challenges, but partisans on both sides would have none of it, which simply ensures that we’ll continue to sit by as China throws America aside as the world’s dominant economy. ■
THE BIG ISSUE Do you think technology changes and the rise of China and other new economic powers mean unemployment is likely to remain high for a long time?
TOM ZARFOSS
YUANG YANG
JIM HEEMAN
BYRON VAN IDEN
Willoughby Hills
Cleveland
Phoenix
Vermilion
I think it’s an issue and it concerns me for my grandchildren. I think we’re failing in our education system to get people prepared for jobs, and there’s too much cheap labor in the world.
I don’t think so. I think a lot of jobs will remain in America and (some companies) are trying to bring call center jobs back.
I think so. I don’t necessarily believe China will pass us technologically but (foreign) labor is so much cheaper.
Yes I do. I’m an attorney and some of my small business clients are facing price competition from foreign suppliers.
➤➤ Watch more people weigh in by visiting the Multimedia section at www.CrainsCleveland.com.