Although recent indicators of spending and production have generally been encouraging, conditions in the labor market have improved only modestly at best. After the loss of nearly 8-1/2 million jobs in 2008 and 2009, private payrolls expanded at an average of only about 100,000 per month in 2010--a pace barely enough to accommodate the normal increase in the labor force and, therefore, insufficient to materially reduce the unemployment rate. ....with output growth likely to be moderate in the next few quarters and employers reportedly still reluctant to add to payrolls, considerable time likely will be required before the unemployment rate has returned to a more normal level. Persistently high unemployment, by damping household income and confidence, could threaten the strength and sustainability of the recovery. Moreover, roughly 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for six months or more. Long-term unemployment not only imposes exceptional hardships on the jobless and their families, but it also erodes the skills of those workers and may inflict lasting damage on their employment and earnings prospects. ... It could take four to five more years for the job market to normalize fully.

In addition, approximately 14 percent of the nation's employment is within government sectors and with the eventual reduction of government positions as a result of decreased government revenues, the unemployment rate will also increase.

In my opinion, countries that did not have policies similar to the "stated income" requirements for home purchases are now thriving when compared to the United States. As you may recall, the stated income mortgage program was a form of mortgage loan program that was part of a family of "low-doc" and "no-doc" loans, meaning little or no documentation was required for a residential loan. A conventional mortgage loan requires lots of documentation or "full-doc" including a list of all creditors, last two or three paycheck stubs, W-2s and returns on income tax for the past two years, bank statements going back two months, and legal documents in case of bankruptcy or family misadventure.

Countries that did not have these unorthodox lending policies, that included lacking due diligence within the mortgage loan industry, are doing very well when compared to the United States. Additionally, you may recall that in January of 2009, President Obama proposed, and the House of Representatives subsequently included, a proposed ban on most purchases of foreign steel and iron used in infrastructure projects. The Senate then debated this Buy American theme by requiring that any projects related to the stimulus use only American-made equipment and goods. This isolationist philosophy quickly gave rise to Europe's well measured knee-jerk response from Catherine Ashton, the EU trade commissioner, who said, "We are looking at the situation. The one thing we can be absolutely certain about is if a bill is passed which prohibits the sale or purchase of European goods on American territory, that is something we will not stand idly by and ignore." If this didn't send a large enough tsunami through the global trading partners, many internationally dependent firms, like General Electric, openly denounced such Buy American stipulations while patently fearing reprisals from its overseas trading partners and foreign governments.

Although my doctorate isn't in economics, I developed what I call the "flip-it" test. Pick up any item in a store and "flip-it" over to see where it is made. Most of the time, the product is not Made In America. We seem to be more of a society of consumers rather than of manufacturers. In that case, workers are not needed for consumer countries, but they are needed for manufacturer countries and countries with growing industries. Australia, New Zealand and South America are actively seeking experienced American workers for positions within their countries. China is looking for management personnel from America. If you have attended large international job conventions in the United States you will see HR departments and International Placement Specialists looking for educated and job-seasoned Americans for relocation overseas. Keeping in mind what Ben Bernanke said above, "Long-term unemployment…erodes the skills of those workers and may inflict lasting damage on their employment and earnings prospects," America's unemployed workforce needs to take a sober and fast look at employment outside of the United States before their skills and experience become too dated.

As a real life example that I experienced and was part of was the 1989 Australian pilots' dispute. This dispute was one of the most expensive and dramatic industrial disputes in Australia's history. It was coordinated by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots (AFAP) after a prolonged period of wage suppression, to support its campaign for a large pay increases. The dispute was elevated into a strike on August 18, 1989. As part of this strike, AFAP imposed on their employers (Ansett Australia, East-West, Ipec and Australian Airlines) a limitation on the hours they were prepared to work, arguing that if they were to be treated in exactly the same way as other employee groups (the stance adopted by the Government), their work conditions should also be the same. This initially took the form of making themselves available for flying duties only within the normal office working hours of 9am to 5pm. This strike severely disrupted domestic air travel in Australia and had a major detrimental impact on the tourism industry. The Royal Australian Air Force provided some limited domestic air service pilots at the time to ease the impact of the strike. The AFAP used mass pilot resignations to put pressure on the government. To AFAP's surprise, the Australian government accepted the mass resignations and immediately began looking for about 300 pilots from overseas. At that time, I was hired by Ansett and Australian Airlines to help with interviewing, negotiating employment agreements with the new pilots, and ensuring the legal and tax part of the relocation of the individual pilots and their families was a smooth as possible. Most of the potential new hire pilots were recently laid off from the bankrupt U.S airlines.

Conclusion

International hiring and employee relocation by businesses located overseas and employment of Americans present unique and complex obstacles which need to be addressed early on in the interviewing process of balancing the needs and expectations of foreign location employers and American workers and their families. I think it is important for foreign located employers and American employees to realize the obstacles that need to be overcome and the advanced planning that will ease the transition of an American from domestic employment to a happy and successful international assignment. I will write a series of article on these obstacles in hopes of helping potential employers and employees follow a successful path for securing a win/win situation.