Companies With Too Few Workers May Do Nothing About It

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One of the recurring nightmares that the Administration and many economists have is the that fear of the recession and a drive for profit will keep American companies from hiring new workers, even if they need them. The theory goes that firms will live on the edge of productivity which means that they will squeeze every last ounce of work out of every last employee.

About 38% of those who do have a job say their company is understaffed, according to a new Gallup poll. Workers may exaggerate the need for new colleagues because they believe they have to labor themselves to fill the void.

Another 52% of those polled say that their companies have the right numbers of people.

The data show that the job market still faces the obvious challenge that companies will not add to payrolls which could keep unemployment above 9.5%, a level where it has been for 14 months–a period which has not been matched since The Great Depression.

The more insidious and less obvious issue is the government will have to pay to aid those without jobs or allow them to become indigent in greater number. Estimates are that the number of people who have been out of work for over 99 weeks and have no unemployment financial support at all could reach 3 million by the end of the year. That number will grow rapidly if there is not significant job creation within the private sector. The government has begun to layoff workers as the unemployment data from the last four months show. That adds even more people to the group of millions who look for work to replace jobs they have lost.

Company by company the chances of a jobs recovery has been destroyed and it seems that is likely to continue.

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Aug. 5-8, 2010, with a random sample of 499 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S. who are employed full or part-time, selected using random-digit-dial sampling.

Douglas A. McIntyre