Fun Facts about Workers, Employment!

[tony human]

• For every one job opening, there are four people looking for work.
• Union membership is at a 70-year low.
• Unemployment benefits have saved 3.2 million people from poverty.
• 50% of US workers make less than $26,364 per year.
• When you add up salary and benefits, the average auto worker in Germany makes $67.14 an hour.  In the US, auto workers only make $33.77 an hour in salary and benefits.
• One recent survey found that 77% of all US small businesses do not plan to hire any more workers. 
• The unemployment rate in Greece for those under the age of 24 is now at 39%.
• In Greece, large numbers of people are simply giving up on life.  Sadly, the number of suicides in Greece has increased by 40% in just the past year.
• In the first decade of the 21st century, Americans lost 5,500,000 manufacturing jobs. US employment in the manufacture of computer and electronic products fell by 40%; in the production of machinery by 30%, in motor vehicles and parts by 44%, and in the manufacture of clothing by 66%.
• As you read this, there are millions of Americans out there wondering why they can’t find any jobs. 23.7 million American workers are either unemployed or underemployed right now.
• In 1970, 65% of all Americans lived in “middle class neighborhoods”.  By 2007, only 44% of all Americans lived in “middle class neighborhoods”.
• Middle class Americans have been seeing their incomes decline for a very long time.  Between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27% after you account for inflation.
• Since 1971, consumer debt in the US has increased by a whopping 1700%.  Unfortunately, US consumers have still not learned how to stay out of debt.  And the rate of personal savings in the US is rapidly falling.
• The average income for Americans was $39,959 last year, but the median wage was just $26,364.
• Today, only 55.3% of all Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 have jobs.
• In the US today, there are 240 million working age people, but only about 140 million of them are working.
• Only 23% of American companies plan to hire more employees in 2012.
• America has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years.  During 2010 it got even worse.  In 2011, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the US.
• Half of all American workers now earn $505 or less per week.
• Approximately one out of every three Americans that grew up in a middle class household has slipped down the income ladder.
• Back in 1970, 25% of all jobs in the US were manufacturing jobs. Today, only 9% of all jobs are manufacturing jobs. 
• More than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the US have permanently closed down since 2001. 
• A decade ago, the US was ranked number one in average wealth per adult.  By 2010, the US had fallen to seventh.
• Since December 2007, median household income in the US has declined by a total of 6.8% once you account for inflation.
• Since the year 2000, incomes for US households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12% after you adjust for inflation.
• The US has lost a staggering 32% of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.
• Manufacturing employment in the US computer industry was actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.
• In 1959, manufacturing represented 28% of all US economic output.  In 2008, it represented only 11.5%.
• The television manufacturing industry began in the US, but today all TV’s are made overseas.
• Since 2001 America has lost approximately 2.8 million jobs due to our trade deficit with China alone.
• The average amount of time that a worker stays unemployed in the US is now over 40 weeks.
• One out of every five Americans that do have a job considers themselves to be underemployed.
• The total net worth of US households declined by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter of 2011 alone.
• The ratio of household debt to personal income in the US is now 154%.
• The US Postal Service has lost more than 5 billion dollars over the past year.
• 19% of all American men between the ages of 25 and 34 are now living with their parents.
• Approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents.
• The median net worth for households led by someone 65 years of age or older is 47 times greater than the median net worth for households led by someone under the age of 35.
• 37% of all US households that are led by someone under the age of 35 have a net worth of zero or less than zero.
• 46% of all American workers have less than $10,000 saved for retirement, and 29% of all American workers have less than $1,000 saved for retirement.
• American workers are $6.6 trillion short of what they need to retire comfortably.
• Back in 1991, 50% of all American workers planned to retire before they reached the age of 65.  Today, that number has declined to 23%.
• 74% of American workers expect to continue working once they are "retired".
• A recent AARP survey of Baby Boomers reported that 40% of them plan to work "until they drop".
• 56% of American retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.
• Americans 55 years of age or older now account for 20% of all bankruptcies in the US.  Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12% of all bankruptcies.
• Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178%.
• The US economy loses approximately 9,000 jobs for every $1 billion of goods that are imported from overseas.
• The new World Trade Center tower is going to be made with imported glass from China and imported steel from Germany.
• The new MLK memorial on the National Mall was made in China.
• If you gathered together all of the workers that are "officially" unemployed in the US into one nation, they would constitute the 68th largest country in the entire world.
• About 20% of all US adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.
• There are more unemployed workers in the US than there are people living in the entire nation of Greece.

[tony human]

DON'T KNOW BROTHER.