Wow - government grew by +1,100 jobs in a recession when all the state and local governments are in budget crises? That is soooo surprising (not).

Carl, the breakdown is: Federal government +100 jobs in metro St. Louis from August 2008 to August 2009, state government -600, local government +1,600. In August, the local number could be influenced by the timing of school openings. But, throughout 2009 the local government category has consistently shown year-over-year gains.

Has the local and state powers stopped and asked themselves WHY the STL and the rest of the state keep losing manufacturing jobs? Are they just employer-infriendly or what?

No one thinks that buying foreign built cars from foreign companies has an impact. Well, here is solid proof that the trend toward buying foreign cars has had a direct impact on some 11,300 of our neighbors, and many more when you consider the 4:1 to 8:1 impact each dollar of private sector income has on the local economy, and still many more when you consider the lost jobs at other manufacturing plants that provided parts and other support for the local auto manufacturing plants. I’m sure the workers in Seoul and Tokyo appreciate your support. Like Nicklaus said - sad.

Yes, it’s sad for many reasons.

It’s sad that the union bosses with the aid and support of the Democrats they have purchased in Congress for decades were able to strong arm auto companies into paying $80-$110k (w/ benefits) for jobs that can be performed by your average teenager.

It’s sad these same contracts called for pools of thousands of union workers to be paid while literally doing nothing because they could not be terminated (per their contract) in response to market changes.

It’s sad that the cumulative healthcare benefits negotiated by the union bosses resulted in liabilities that increased the price to build GM cars by over $1000 per car, effectively rendering the companies uncompetitive.

It’s sad that as opposed to the American companies designing superior cars and the union workers building better cars, their only selling point was how evil it is to buy superior products from companies headquartered elsewhere, despite quite a plurality of their cars actually being built in America (assuming that was not a ridiculous standard for a car purchase).

Come to think of it - this isn’t sad. This is the way it should work. Nothing is free (including overpriced union labor) - you pay for it eventually. You are paying for it in the ultimate death of these jobs. Unfortunately, the rest of us Americans have now shared in that cost you were able to force on the companies before (with the help of your purchased Democrat politicians). We taxpayers have now “invested” $80 billion over the past year in auto bailouts. Probability of a return? 0%

Now that is sad.

So, when the last cars remaining cars rolling through the streets of this city are lovely American automobiles with big Obama stickers on them, you’ll know it’s finally over here. You can officially turn the lights off, because only the looters are left.

So, how many of these manufacturing jobs do you think resurfaced in the corporations offshore locations ie:Mexico, Canada, etc?
Total fleecing - all the way around.

Our government gave $60 billion dollars to GM for their bankruptcy filing… something they could do for free. What a waste of money. Our efforts to protect bad businesses are going to destroy the US dollar.

Blaming unions seems to be misdirected anger.

All of the cars sold in the United States coming from Japan, Korea, and Europe are made by Union Employees. The most militant unions happen to be, in all places, Korea.

The real difference is the laws surrounding corporate governance. In this country those laws encourage very, very short term thinking by executives.

In other countries, the structure and laws of corporate governance force companies and their executives to think longer term.

Blaming the Unions is short sighted. They are not the root cause of the problem.

Republican/conservative talking points won’t get us out of this problem. They helped create the problem. The first rule, when you’re in a hole, is to stop digging. That means abandoning the conservative talking points as ersatz policy making and thinking deeply and strategically about our problems, some of the solutions being counter intuitive to the conservative mind set that loves giving executives free reign to loot their companies before they retire leaving the companies with little or no future.

I guess only employment at “Big 3″ UAW plants counts? Or did Toyota close down its Bodine Aluminum engine plant in Troy?

Did I really say, twenty years ago, that the U.S. was headed to having no industrial output? Maybe I should run for office, because I also said we’ll have no middle-class if a guy with a high-school diploma can’t get a job bolting together cars.

Meantime, the Post Dispatch tells me Andy Williams is doing the talking for me? What a country!