land of jobs. . .

. . . and first Friday of the month employment reports. 

CNSNews reports that over 100 million working-age Americans are not currently working (add those not participating to those without a job but looking for one) while also noting that we broke a record for foreign nationals in the workforce (almost 25 million are employed).

Meanwhile, CNN Money suggests a "family feud" could have exacerbated the net job loss reported in the "food and beverage retail category." 

I've no information as to whether any authors I've just linked to received pay for their posts.

Enjoy the weekend, and the work, if it calls.

full-time work

According to a metric tracked by Gallup since 2011, less than 44 percent of American adults have a full-time job. Although it will always be a goal to increase this percentage, to encourage employers to understand why the stability of full-time work benefits both worker and company, it's also beholden on all of us teaching career-prep college courses to make students aware of this and teach strategies for navigating the world of contingent or permanent part-time employment.

Meanwhile, CNN just "broke the news" that the "U.S. economy added 204,000 jobs in October, more than analysts expected. Unemployment rate rose to 7.3% from 7.2%." Such substantial job gains coupled with a rise in the unemployment rate indicates that there are many more millions of people who'd gladly work were there opportunity to do so.

And here's another piece that includes charts to confirm, once again, that it is a bad time for younger workers in America.

which is it?

If I could only figure out if we're in austerity or growth, boom years or lean times. . .

. . . regardless, the birds are chirping outside at 7 a.m.

What are they saying?

"Hey, Teach, quit yapping and grade some more papers, why don't you?"

In a world where even the poor and on the go are no longer reaching past the dollar menu for the supersized fries, it's hard to believe business is as booming as the latest jobs figures suggest.

Did I mention that a gallon of milk is $3.97 at Wal-Mart in South Carolina?

A gallon of gas, we'll talk about another day.