I’ve added a new chart that includes only private sector jobs since “public sector jobs aren’t real jobs.”

Private employers added 67,000 jobs in August, the 8th consecutive months of job growth in the private sector. That isn’t nearly enough, but at least it is in the positive direction. The economy needs to add about 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. It would need to be twice that amount to reduce the unemployment rate.

A prominent economist agrees:

“We would be in a measurably worse place if not for the stimulus…If we had not had the stimulus…we would have 2-1/2 to 3 million fewer jobs today than we actually have. So employment – payroll employment – is off 8 million jobs from the peak. If we had not had the stimulus we would be off by about 11 million jobs…[Instead of an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent], we would have an 11.5 percent unemployment rate…[It] certainly has not helped as much as anyone would like, although I think that is just a matter of expectations. I think the expectations were wrong. They were misplaced. But the stimulus did exactly what it was intended to do. It was to end the recession and jump start a recovery and it did that.” – Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, co-founder of Economy.com, and former economic advisor to John McCain’s presidential campaign.

With Zandi advising him, maybe President McCain would have proposed an economic stimulus package similar to what President Obama passed (except people probably wouldn’t call McCain a socialist).

Most of the recent job losses have been in the public sector (which, according to you, aren’t “real jobs” anyway), including the expected loss of temporary census workers. Democrats are on track to pass a bill to aid state and local government, which will help prevent further job losses in the public sector.

There have now been 7 consecutive months of net job growth in the private sector: 51,000 in May, 31,000 in June, and 71,000 in July (but still not nearly enough to make much difference). Democrats successfully extended Unemployment Insurance benefits, but Republicans have blocked loans and tax cuts for small businesses.

Presidents (of either party) never deserve all the credit or blame for the economy, but I still prefer the blue trend to the red trend overall.

So I got to thinking… my job allows for extended periods of time on lonely stretches of highway for thinking…

The trucking industry is hiring to keep up with demand. Why? Because there is a legal limit on how many hours of productivity you can get out of each truck driver. Once you absorb the legal limit for all your truck drivers the only way to increase production is to hire more of them.

But in other areas there are no such limits. They can keep demanding overtime and point to the lines of those willing to take your place if you refuse the overtime.

Why are employers willing to work their existing workers into the dirt instead of hiring new employees to meet demand even if they must pay time and a half for overtime? Well, the currently employed worker already knows how to do the job. It will take the new guy time to get up to speed. Why take on the cost of the new employee and give him time to cut his teeth if the demand is not going to be sustained?

Everybody is scared. The economy is improving but look at the unemployment rate which is unchanged. I dare not hire new employees until the unemployment rate goes down. Once the unemployment rate goes down, that will prove to me I need to hire additional employees.

Good gosh, talk about self fulfilling prophecy. When did I buy my truck? I bought when no one else was willing to do so and as a result I got a fantastic deal. When is the best time to hire? When you have a fantastic pool of well qualified and honest workers seeking employment.

But expecting employers to take advantage of the obvious opportunity dangling in front of them isn’t enough. We as a nation also have a problem with continuing to fund the huge numbers of currently unemployed who can not find a job because the jobs are not out there?

How to kill two birds with one stone? Tax overtime. The employee already pays increased income tax on the overtime, but the employer writes it off. Reasonable amounts of overtime would be allowed but someone who expects to operate perpetually in this manner pays the tax. If you have work for the unemployed but refuse to hire them then you should pay the cost for them sitting on their butts at home.

My personal experience in the trucking industry is that the economy is indeed coming around. Our economy is on the rebound but it is a jobless recovery. Well those making money on the recovery should put the unemployed to work. If you are going to explain to me how you can’t do it I’ll explain to you how you’re going to pay your taxes so the government can try to do it instead. Private industry does a better job of providing jobs in the economy then the government can do, but if the majority of voters are unemployed we’re going to end up with a revolution at the voting booths that would make Karl Marx proud.