In the last years of the nineteen-eighties, I worked not at startups but at what might be called finish-downs. Tech companies that were dying would hire temps - college students and new graduates - to do what little was left of the work of the employees they'd laid off.
The job market improved impressively under Barack Obama's presidency after the Great Recession, when millions of jobs vanished seemingly overnight.
It was a recession when I graduated, but I was so unequipped to have a job anyway, I don't think it would have mattered if the economy was booming. I think I was expecting bad jobs. But as it went on through my 20s, I began to wonder how things were going to turn out.
Unemployment in Florida peaked at 11.2 percent in 2009, higher than the national average, and the state was a center for home foreclosures.
What I worry about is that people are losing confidence, losing energy, losing enthusiasm, and there's a real opportunity to get them into work.
During Governor Jennifer Granholm's administration, Michigan has experienced job losses, declining personal incomes, diminishing home values, and the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
Why should we make our constituents wait on job growth?
I thought I would set the world on fire when I got out of college. I had done quite well in a field that was growing. Unfortunately, we got hit with a recession in 1981.
We're starting to see, as the economy improves, that the unemployment rate among veterans and military spouses - we're seeing some improvement in those numbers. And that's a good thing.
