Big profits don't mean significant job gains

Despite the highest profits in six years and a plan to increase automobile production, Ford officials are not committed to hiring workers anytime soon. That is representative of what is keeping the economy from a true and sustainable recovery.

Many companies are making money again. The federal stimulus funds are beginning to work and certain business practices are improving. Some companies, such as Ford, are reporting huge profits. Even the newspaper industry, where I worked for nearly three decades, seems to be on the mend.

Yet, there is one thing missing from all this good news. Jobs.

Whether it's due to a lack of confidence in the fragile recovery or just pure greed, corporate America does not seem inclined to hire at a rate sufficient enough to put a serious dent in unemployment figures. That's a major problem for the country as a whole as we try to reduce the deficit and restore the hope and spirit of the middle class.

If companies don't begin to show some faith in themselves and the economy by creating more jobs, whatever gains that have been made in recent months will be quickly lost in a second and deeper recession -- maybe as early as this fall, according to some economists. Whatever sense of optimism that has been generated in real estate sales and through other economic indicators has to be supported by the generation of a significant number of new jobs. Simply halting layoffs isn't going to get it done. We have a lot of catching up to do in order to bring laid-off folks back into the system.

So far, it appears the majority of new jobs have been low-level positions. That is feeding into the underemployment rate, which is around 18 percent. Until jobs are available that pay decent wages, foreclosures will continue. Consumers will cut back again. The negative rippling effect will resume once the stimulus funds are exhausted.

The formation of good jobs remains the key to everything. While $50,000 jobs being replaced by $20,000 jobs might be good for short-term corporate profits, it does little to strengthen our economy for the long haul.