From CNBC: Are CEO’s To Blame For High Unemployment

Most of the time on most days I have CNBC on mute sprinkled with some MSNBC and FOX News (I can’t watch much of either one), CNN and of course ESPN (because we all need balance).

This is a great exchange with James Pethokoukis, of Reuters BreakingViews, and Dan Gross, of Newsweek on why unemployment is where it is, why CEO’s are not hiring, why with reductions in productivity they may now need to (or soon).

An interesting topic to me is how we have workers without jobs yet companies cannot find workers with the right skill sets.

They mention a Michael Moore piece in Daily Beast, here it is Profits Up at GM! And You're Still Unemployed.

Here is a question to you and rather than send me email (which I always appreciate) put your comments below. I am curious about what you think of why companies are not yet hiring and if you were a CEO would you.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Here is the video:

Comments

[Tracy Tran]

The reason CEOs and employers are not hiring as they say is cost of healthcare, new financial reforms, and tax regulations. I call bullcrap on that since non-financial companies have $1.8 trillion leftover. I won't blame CEOs since they are making profit with less since that capitalism.

I will blame CEO's for pointing at others of why there's unemployment (mostly pointing to Obama). They say he hasn't done enough, yet they have all this money to make hires but aren't doing it.

If I were a CEO, I would ask myself to be put in a roundtable of business leaders and have a business beer summit week with the Obama Administration and Congress to discuss what are the changes in healthcare, taxes, and finance. What's been lacking between government and business leaders is communication and this should rectify it. Also, I wouldn't mind a tax break or being taxed with a number of hires based on the company's budget (too complicated to explain here).

That been said, I think its a little naive, but realistically, this is all about politics. Probably were not going to see hires until 2011. As CEO, I would worry about my business and if there changes, I will need to tell my company to adapt and make adjustments to make us better for the long run. I want the killer instinct that government/corporate regulations won't stop us, but are on an ethical line and crush the competition.

For job seekers, I wouldn't look into who has jobs available, I would look for an organization that has onions.