Yes, Tim, it truly is about jobs. Congress can debate health care reform, bail out banks, extend unemployment benefits, work to develop a climate bill, increase the legislative budget, and do whatever else it does until the cows come home, but we need jobs—lots of good jobs—for the economy to improve.

Jobs and a healthy economy are analogous to the chicken and the egg. You can't have one without the other. And without jobs and a healthy economy, the U.S. can't afford the flood of money Congress is spending these days. The current situation is a mindboggling conundrum—a mess. I don't have the answers, but I believe employers and employees can work together to mitigate job loss—just as the companies mentioned in my colleague's blog post did. Fabricating Update readers think so too.

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Yesterday evening, I sat in a Jiffy Lube waiting room while my car was undergoing an emissions test—a requirement for tag renewal. A small, very old-school, rabbit-eared TV tuned to a local news station stood in the corner. As I attempted to wile away the time reading the latest but already well-worn issue of People magazine and catch up with the David Letterman situation, a fellow waiting room occupant began to talk to me about what was happening on TV. She laughed and said, "My husband keeps telling me to stop watching the news. It's all bad."

Throughout the years, I've heard this advice from several people, most memorably, an individual who taught courses at Rock Valley College, Rockford, Ill., in the early 90s about the mind-body connection. Myrna (not her real name, but close) said we should never watch the news, or read the newspaper; it isn't healthy.

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The numbers popping up in the media recently draw an interesting, perhaps conflicted picture of the state of business in the U.S. Here's why.

First, there's unemployment. Like many, I expected the unemployment rate to continue its relentless rise past the symbolic 10 percent mark. It didn't. It fell a bit, to 9.4 percent. Dig a little deeper into the government's official release, though, and you'll find that 14,000 people in the fabricated metal products sector lost their jobs. Machinery-makers shed 15,000. And manufacturing overall shed 2 million jobs since this recession began.

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That number bounced around the blogosphere this week as CIT teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. CEO Jeff Peek told news outlets that 760 manufacturing companies could shut down if CIT collapses. And then comes the ripple effect, which is even scarier.

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If you subscribe to the "Welding Wire" e-newsletter, you may have seen the comments in the January issue from a seasoned metalworker who questions whether the much proclaimed skilled-labor shortage really exists. His comments drew responses from those who wholeheartedly agreed with what he had to say, along with feedback from others who brought up important points that some of the choir might not have considered.

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As automotive execs, in delicious irony, flew luxury private jets to Washington to ask for billions of taxpayer money, I flew coach.

In the middle seat, mind you.

I landed Thursday in Philadelphia to tour E&E Metal Fab, a little more than an hour to the west in Lebanon, Pa. The company celebrated its fifth anniversay last week with an open house. E&E is by no means a giant of industry, but the company has an impressive track record. It started with nine employees; today it has 29. Sales have doubled every year, on track to hit $4.5 million this year. (It’s easier for a small firm to grow so rapidly, but the numbers are impressive all the same.) And employee turnover has been next to nothing. President William “Willie” Erb can count on his fingers how many employees left since the company launched in November 2003.

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Last week's Welding Wire e-newsletter lead feature discussed a report by Chief White House correspondent for the CBS Evening News, Jim Axelrod, who recently was surprised to learn about a career that requires no college degree and pays six figures.

Axelrod reported that "thanks to a program run by WorkNet Pinellas in Tampa, Fla., hundreds of men and women, many with no more than a high school diploma, are training for jobs that practically guarantee a six figure salary within three-to-five years … it's as old-school as it gets."

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The economy is looking like an intricate patchwork that’s still holding together, though with some seriously thread-bare areas. The housing and financial service sectors make up the brunt of those bare threads, while manufacturing continues to hold surprisingly strong, if you don’t include sectors like automotive and construction. Surprising everyone, factory orders increased 1.3 percent in July, much of it in support of the growing energy and agriculture sectors.

And though it’s really just a technicality, some are predicting the U.S. may not fall into an official recession, that is, two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Of course, Bernard Savo probably doesn’t care about technicalities.

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Labor costs continue to rise. Companies feel the pinch of surging raw material prices. Margins are declining. Companies can’t find the labor they need, and manufacturers strive to cut costs and keep work on their shores. This sounds like the problems manufacturers face stateside, but it’s not.

It’s in China.

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Last week's Welding Wire e-newsletter addressed the skilled welder shortage and asked subscribers to e-mail us any welding programs they were aware of in their areas. Thefabricator.com is interested in compiling a list of programs that can be used by both those interested in welding careers and employers looking for skilled welders. Several subscribers responded with program information, and we hope to obtain more over the coming weeks.

This post isn’t about those programs. It's inspired by another response we received that addressed the dichotomy of the labor situation: Employers can't find skilled labor; skilled laborers can't find jobs. What's keeping them apart?

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