Here’s another reason for America’s unemployment miseries:

More than 12 million Americans are now unemployed because many employers have designed “hiring” systems that simply don’t work.

So says Peter Cappelli, the George W. Taylor professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is also the author of  Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It.

Amazon.com: Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It

Employers often whine that they can’t find the talent they need.  Today’s applicants, they claim, lack skills, education and even a willingness to work.

The truth is altogether different.  According to Cappelli, the fault lies with employers, not job-seekers:

• Hiring managers create wildly inflated descriptions of the talents and skills needed for openings: “They ask for the moon.”
• Computer technology eliminates many qualified people for consideration when their resumés don’t match the inflated qualifications demanded by employers.
• Employers aren’t willing to pay for the education and skills they demand: “What they really want is someone young, cheap and experienced.”
• Online applicants are often told to name a salary expectation.  Anyone who names a salary higher than what the company is willing to pay is automatically rejected.  There’s no chance to negotiate the matter.
• About 10% of employers admit that the problem is that their desired candidates refuse to accept the positions at the wage level being offered.
• Employers are not looking to hire entry-level applicants right out of school. They want experienced candidates who can contribute immediately with no training or start-up time.
• Employers demand that a single employee perform the work of several highly skilled employees. One company wanted an employee to be an expert in (1) human resources, (2) marketing, (3) publishing, (4) project management, (5) accounting and (6) finance.
• When employers can’t find the “perfect candidate” they leave positions open for months. But if they were willing to offer some training, they might easily hire someone who could quickly take on the job.
• Companies have stopped hiring new college graduates and grooming them for management ranks. They no longer have their own training and development departments.  Without systems for developing people, companies must recruit outsiders.
• Employers’ unrealistic expectations are fueled partly by their own arrogance.  With more than three jobless people for every opening, employers believe they should be able to find these “perfect people.”

According to Cappelli, the hiring system desperately needs serious reform:

• Review job descriptions.  If they’re inflated, bring them down-to earth.
• Don’t expect to get something for nothing–or next to it.  Offer competitive salaries.
• Scrutinize the hiring process.  Make sure that the automated systems aren’t screening out qualified candidates simply because they don’t have all the brass buttons in a row.
• Beef up the Human Resources section.

A 1996 cartoon by Ted Rall, the no-holds-barred cartoonist–entitled “Something for Nothing”–brilliantly sums up how most corporate “job creators” actually regard and treat their employees and applicants:

Cappelli worries that the complaints about a labor shortage caused by an unwilling, unskilled workforce will be repeated enough that they will be accepted as truth:

“It’s a loud story … that could become pernicious if it persists.  It does have a blame-the-victim feeling to it.  It makes people feel better. You don’t have to feel so bad about people suffering if you think they are choosing it somehow.”

But America can end this national disaster–and disgrace.

A policy based only on concessions–such as endless tax breaks for hugely profitable corporations–is a policy of appeasement.

And appeasement only whets the appetite of those appeased for even greater concessions.

It is past time to hold wealthy and powerful corporations accountable for their socially and financially irresponsible acts.

This solution can be summed up in three words: Employers Responsibility Act (ERA).

If passed by Congress and vigorously enforced by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Labor, an ERA would ensure full-time, permanent and productive employment for millions of capable, job-seeking Americans.

And it would achieve this without raising taxes or creating controversial government “make work” programs.

Such legislation would legally require employers to demonstrate as much initiative for hiring as job-seekers are now expected to show in searching for work.

An Employers Responsibility Act would simultaneously address the following evils for which employers are directly responsible:

• The loss of jobs within the United States owing to companies’ moving their operations abroad—solely to pay substandard wages to their new employees.
• The mass firings of employees which usually accompany corporate mergers or acquisitions.
• The widespread victimization of part-time employees, who are not legally protected against such threats as racial discrimination, sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions.
• The refusal of many employers to create better than menial, low-wage jobs.
• The widespread employer practice of extorting “economic incentives” from cities or states in return for moving to or remaining in those areas. Such “incentives” usually absolve employers from complying with laws protecting the environment and/or workers’ rights.
• The refusal of many employers to provide medical and pension benefits—nearly always in the case of part-time employees, and, increasingly, for full-time, permanent ones as well.
• Rising crime rates, due to rising unemployment.

Millions of Americans continue to blame President Barack Obama for the nation’s high unemployment rate. But no President can hope to turn unemployment around until employers are forced to start living up to their responsibilities.

And those responsibilities should encompass more than simply fattening their own pocketbooks and/or egos at the expense of their fellow Americans.  Such behavior used to be called treason.

It’s time to recognize that a country can be betrayed for other than political reasons.  It can be sold out for economic ones, too.

Employers who enrich themselves by weakening their country—by throwing millions of qualified workers into the street and moving their plants to other countries—are traitors.

Employers who set up offshore accounts to claim their American companies are foreign-owned—and thus exempt from taxes—are traitors.

Employers who systematically violate Federal immigration laws—to hire illegal aliens instead of willing-to-work Americans—are traitors.

And with a new definition of treason should go new penalties–heavy fines and/or prison terms–for those who sell out their country to enrich themselves.

In its June 8, 2011 cover-story on “What U.S. Economic Recovery?  Five Destructive Myths,” Time magazine warned that profit-seeking corporations can’t be relied on to ”make it all better.”

Click here: What U.S. Economic Recovery? Five Destructive Myths – TIME

Wrote Rana Foroohar, Time‘s assistant managing editor in charge of economics and business:

American companies “are doing quite well,” but most American workers “are earning a lower hourly wage now than they did during the recession.”

Corporations, in short, are doing extremely well.  But they don’t spend their profits on American workers.

“There may be $2 trillion sitting on the balance sheets of American corporations globally, but firms show no signs of wanting to spend it in order to hire workers at home.”

In short:  Giving even greater tax breaks to mega-corporations–the standard Republican mantra–has not persuaded them to stop “outsourcing” jobs. Nor has it convinced them to start hiring Americans.

While embarrassingly overpaid CEOs squander corporate wealth on themselves, millions of Americans can’t afford medical care or must depend on charity to feed their families.

Yet there is also a disconnect between the truth of this situation and the willingness of Americans to face up to that truth.

The reason, writes Foroohar:

Republicans have convinced most Americans they can revitalize the economy by slashing “taxes on the wealthy and on cash-hoarding corporations while cutting benefits for millions of Americans.”

To restore prosperity, America will need both tax increases and cuts in entitlement programs.

Now, fast-forward one year later–to a June 11, 2012 CNNMoney investigation, which raised the question: “Why is the jobs recovery still so sluggish?”

And the answer?  “These 8 companies recently announced layoffs in the thousands.”

8 job killing companies – Hewlett-Packard slashes 27,000 jobs (1) – CNNMoney

The companies:

• Hewlett-Packard – cutting 27,000 jobs.
• American Airlines – slashing 13,000 jobs–with most of the cuts affecting maintenance and ground workers.  That’s something to think about the next time you’re thinking of flying American.
• Sony – eliminating 10,000 jobs.
• Proctor & Gamble – axing 5,700 jobs.
• PepsiCo – slashing 8,700 jobs.
• Yahoo – wiping out 2,000 jobs.
• First Solar – cutting 2,000 jobs.
• Kraft Foods – slashes 1,600 workers.

Of course, some companies have legitimate reasons for cutting back on employees:

• Sony has failed to revive its losing television business, which hasn’t turned a profit in eight years.
• And PepsiCo has suffered a fall-off in customers as Americans switch from soda to healthier drinks.

But there are also sinister reasons why millions of willing-to-work Americans remain unemployed.  Or remain trapped in part-time, no-benefits jobs far below their levels of education and experience.

Chief among these is the refusal of Congressional Republicans to create job opportunities for their fellow Americans.

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I, Vermont) made just that argument to guest host Ezra Klein on the June 12 edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

SANDERS: Everybody knows you have to invest in infrastructure. We can create millions of decent paying jobs in the long term and I speak as a former mayor, you obviously save money because you don’t have to do constant repairs as we’ve just seen.

The simple reason is I’m afraid that you have a Republican mindset that says, “Hmm, let`s see, we can repair the infrastructure, save money long time, create millions of jobs, bad idea. Barack Obama will look good.  And we’ve got to do everything that we can to make Barack Obama look bad.”

So, despite the fact that we had a modest bipartisan transportation bill, roads, bridges, public transit pass the Senate with over 70 votes, Inhofe, the most conservative guy in the Senate, working with Barbara Boxer, one of the most progressives, we can’t get that bill moving in the House of Representatives.

So if you’re asking me why, I would say 100 percent political. If it’s good for America, if it creates jobs, if it’s good for Barack Obama, we can’t do it.

On January 7, the United States Senate voted to allow debate to go forward and avoid a filibuster.

The topic under discussion: Reinstating temporary unemployment benefits for 1.3 million long-term unemployed Americans.

The federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program was created in 2008 and has since been reauthorized 11 times.  But those benefits expired on December 28 and have not yet been renewed.

For renewal to occur, the measure must clear the Senate by 60 (out of 100) votes and then the House of Representatives by a majority of its 435 members.

At present, there is no set time by when lawmakers in the House plan to reinstate unemployment insurance.

And even if Congress votes to restore the benefits, those payments will run for only three months.  Then, once again, more than one million jobless Americans will be on their own.

The battle lines have been clearly drawn.

Democrats claim:

• They want to help Americans struggling to pay their bills until they get back on their feet; and
• Failing to pass an extension will reverse the reviving economy.

Republicans claim:

• Such extensions encourage the unemployed to not look for work; and
• To offset the $6.4 billion price tag for extending benefits, there must be cuts elsewhere in the Federal budget.

Republican Senator Susan Collins (Maine) said she wanted to see changes to the unemployment system:

“If someone has been unemployed for more than a year it is very likely the job they once had is not coming back.  It would be better if a condition of continued unemployment benefits after a year … [was linked] to a job training program participation.”

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he told President Barack Obama in December, 2013, that another extension of temporary emergency unemployment benefits “should not only be paid for but include something to help put people back to work.

“To date, the president has offered no such plan. If he does, I’ll be happy to discuss it, but right now the House is going to remain focused on growing the economy and giving America’s unemployed the independence that only comes from finding a good job.”

Collins’ and Boehner’s support for job-retraining programs ignores several brutal truths:

• The national unemployment rate has declined by seven percent.
• But the unemployment rate among the long-term unemployed remains persistent.
• At least 4.1 million Americans have been out of work six months or longer.
• And if you’ve been unemployed six months or longer, the vast majority of employers refuse to even consider hiring you.

Boehner is correct, however, when he says the country needs “something to help put people back to work.”

And that “something” is a nationwide Employers Responsibility Act.

According to Right-wing Republicans, every employer is now a “job creator.”

But if that’s true:

• Why are so many employers not hiring at all?
• Or, if they are hiring, why aren’t they hiring American workers?
• Why are they hiring mostly part-time employees on a no-benefits basis?
• Why are so many employers shutting down American plants and starting new ones in China, Mexico or the Philippines?

Meanwhile, U.S. corporations sit on nearly $2 trillion in cash.

Among the monies they sit upon are those that could be used to hire those millions of qualified, willing-to-work Americans who can’t find fulltime, permanent employment.

An article in the March, 2011 issue of Reader’s Digest gives the lie to the excuses so many employers use for refusing to hire.

Entitled “22 Secrets HR Won’t Tell You About Getting a Job,” it lays bare many of the reasons why America needs to legally force employers to demonstrate as much responsibility for hiring as job-seekers are expected to show toward searching for work.

Click here: 22 Secrets HR Won’t Tell You About Getting a Job | HT Staffing

Among the truths it reveals:

1. Once you’re unemployed more than six months, you’re considered unemployable.
2. It’s not what but who you know that counts.
3. If you can, avoid HR and seek out someone in the company you know. If you don’t know anyone, go straight to the hiring manager.
4. Don’t assume that someone will read your cover letter. Many of them go straight into the garbage can.
5. You will be judged on the basis of your email address–especially if it’s something like “Igetwasted@aol.com.”
6. Athough age discrimination is illegal, it’s still widespread. If you’re in your 50s or 60s, don’t put your year of graduation on your resume.
7. Many employers defy the law and discriminate against applicants who have children. Many managers have gone to illegal lengths to find out applicants’ parental status–like checking a job-seeker’s car for child safety seats.
8. It’s harder to get a job if you’re fat. Hiring managers make quick judgments based on stereotypes.
9. Many managers will assume you’re a loser if you give them a weak handshake.
10. Encourage the interviewer to talk–especially about himself. Ego-driven interviewers love hearing the sound of their own voices and will assume you’re better-qualified than someone who doesn’t want to listen to them prattle.