Want Jobs? Frack

"Fracking in the state of Colorado during the year 2012 created 111,000 jobs, whereas Barack Obama's entire economy has only generated 110,000 jobs for Millennials since 2007," writes Katie Kieffer @ townhall.com.

Last week, TIME Magazine reported: “Fracking generated $29.5 billion in economic activity in Colorado in 2012, creating 111,000 direct jobs with an average wage of $74,811, according to the Colorado Petroleum Association.” One month earlier, TIME reported: “Since 2007, there’s been a net increase of only 110,000 jobs held by workers between the ages of 22 and 34, making millennial unemployment nearly flat for the past six years.”

In June, 15.2 percent of Millennials were unemployed according to Generation Opportunity. Over a third of Millennials were “homeless” during the Obama years—living at home with their parents or grandparents against their will. Finally, Millennials are struggling under the weight of historic levels of student loan debt and rising healthcare insurance premiums at a time when good jobs are scarce.

We can recover this economy, but it will take individuals demanding free market solutions. Let’s audit the Federal Reserve. Let’s lower the corporate income tax rate to the lowest, not the highest, in the world. Let’s each opt out of Obamacare as I explain how to do in my new book titled, “Let Me Be Clear.” And, above all, lets frack.

IBD: Shale Boom is Major Job Creator

IBD Enlarged Version

"The oil and gas boom is producing millions of jobs, and not just where you might expect," writes Mark Mills, author of a new Manhattan Institute report, Where the Jobs Are.

Employment is up 40% in the oil and gas fields since the recession began in late 2007. But in every one of the 10 states where hydrocarbon production is on the rise, overall employment growth has outperformed the nation. These jobs, moreover, are "sticky" — anchored in the local economy and ranging from information services to training, health care, housing, education and related manufacturing.

The gains have emerged from a profound change in the energy landscape. Since the recession officially ended in mid-2009, U.S. oil production has risen 60%, bringing about a 50% collapse in oil imports. Besides reducing the GDP-robbing trade deficit, this has had the immediate impact of creating hundreds of billions of dollars in new economic value.

The boom has also attracted a similar scale of new foreign direct investment. Because of low-cost energy abundance, 100 factories are set to come on line by 2017. When all are up and running, another $300 billion will be pumped into GDP and 1 million more jobs created.

This is proof that economic stimulus — of the right kind — works. ...

Mills argues that four strategies would ignite economic growth and jobs in the US: make sure new regulatory burdens don't throw a wet blanket over the industry; open up new markets by encouraging gas and oil exports; lower the business-tax rate to accelerate the flow of foreign investment into energy-inspired factories; and open more federal land to production.

Women Waiting Tables

From Bloomberg news, Women Waiting Tables Provides Most of Female Gains in U.S.:

Unemployment data appear to reflect big advances for women. The jobless rate in August for females 20 years and older was 6.3 percent, the lowest since December 2008, compared with 7.1 percent for men. As recently as January, the rate was 7.3 percent for both genders, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The downside is that the gains have been largely in lower-paying industries such as waitresses, in-home health care, food preparation and housekeeping. About 60 percent of the increase in employment for women from 2009 to 2012 was in jobs that pay less than $10.10 an hour, compared with 20 percent for men, according to a study by the National Women’s Law Center using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The story also reports:

• While students and recent graduates are taking low-wage jobs to get started, other women are turning them down. About 2 million married women have dropped out of the work force since 2008. 
• Females lost 444,000 public-sector jobs in the four years starting in June 2009, when the recession ended, compared with 290,000 for men.