Publications

- September 2012: Vol. 24 No. 8

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Hiring Strike: The Underlying Reason Corporations Are Not Creating More Jobs in America and Occupying More Office Space

by Christopher Macke

We normally associate strikes with striking employees. However, Larry Kudlow of MSNBC has correctly pointed out that it is corporations that are presently on strike, a capital strike. What some may not realize is that a capital strike also can include a hiring strike, which is what is going on today. Yes, it is true that corporations have been hiring but the rate of hiring is nowhere near proportional to the recovery in retail sales, GDP or corporate profits.

As of April 2012, corporations were still employing 4.5 million fewer employees than the most recent cycle’s employment peak. This is puzzling as GDP and personal consumption expenditures have fully recovered and even surpassed their pre-recession levels. Americans are producing more than before the recession, even on an inflation-adjusted basis, and yet employment remains 4.5 million below its pre-recession peak. Continuing, in what would normally be a very positive sign for future hiring, corporate profits were at re

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