US Economic news is good apart from the labor market

[opebo]

Where are the jobs?

In Asia, mostly.  A bit in South America, Australia, Africa.

[opebo]

Truth be told, if I owned a 20-man business, I wouldn't want to hire Americans either.

Don't worry, they'll soon be the way you want them to be. 

Anyway, what's a '20-man business' nowadays?  Sounds kind of far-fetched.

[opebo]

Or 5 man business. It doesn't matter, except that if I had the money, I would choose not spare the expense of hiring risky and expensive American employees.

Well I suppose I was just referring to the lack of this type of traditional business in the modern economy.  Everything is done in a centralized fashion by large corporations.

But regarding the 'expensive' American employees - they're actually too cheap.  It is precisely the fact that they are paid too little which has trapped us in a deflationary depression.  That's not to say that your stated preference as an employer isn't rational - it is, but it dooms you and everyone else to a poor economic outcome.  In other words only the State can save capitalism, and only be 'overpaying' the workers.

[opebo]

Unemployment is almost always a lagging indicator of economic growth.

It's not just lagging, it takes longer and longer to recover.

The amount of time for the jobs to recover in recessions since the Great Depression has followed the pattern where the last 4 recessions took the longest, and in that order.  

This current recession will clearly be the longest.
The 2001 recession was the second longest at 46 months
The 1990 recession was the third longest at 30 months
The 1981 recession was the fourth longest at 27 months

This is the nature of capitalism.  Without a high level of government control of the economy and massive redistribution, it declines - both by quick collapses and a long slow enervation.