A range of less conventional ideas for creating jobs can be found beyond the narrow Washington conversation, however. They aren’t necessarily politically correct–but that doesn’t mean they would not be effective. It’s not like anything else we’ve been trying lately has been working.

Here are five of the best so-crazy-they-just-might-work ideas to get the economy back on track.

1. Bulldoze excess housing stock

The struggling housing sector continues to exert a drag on the economy as a whole.

Five ideas to create jobs that are so crazy they might just work | The Lookout – Yahoo! News
Technorati Tags: economy, jobs, unemployment

Economic Myth 1: Unemployment is below 10%

From Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

What nonsense that is. The official jobless rate, at 9.7%, is a fiction and should be treated as such. It doesn't even count lots of unemployed people. The so-called "underemployment" or U-6 rate is an improvement: For example it counts discouraged job seekers, and those forced to work part-time because they can't get a full-time job.

That rate right now is 16.6%, just below its recent high and twice the level it was a few years ago.

And even that may not tell the full story. Many people have simply dropped out of the labor force statistics.

Consider, for example, the situation among men of prime working age. An analysis of data at the U.S. Labor Department shows that there are 79 million men in America between the ages of 25 and 65. And nearly 18 million of them, or 22%, are out of work completely. (The rate in the 1950s was less than 10%.) And that doesn't even count those who are working part-time because they can't get full-time work. Add those to the mix and about one in four men of prime working age lacks a full-time job.

Dean Baker, economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., says the numbers may be even worse than that. His research suggests a growing number of men, especially in deprived, urban and minority neighborhoods, have vanished from the statistical rolls altogether.

The verbiage above tells the right story. The official unemployment rate has always been a poor gauge of the employment picture. Only now, it's worse. I'll try to find data to back it up, but my gut tells me there are a lot of people underemployed (not working full time but who need or want to).

By "underemployed," I also mean that people aren't getting paid what they need to survive. Perhaps you lost your cushy 9 to 5 six-figure banking job and now you're working as a retail store manager (big pay cut there). You're working longer and harder but getting paid significantly less than you had been.

That's underemployed. Yes, you have a job and good for you! But you've certainly had to make some lifestyle changes, wouldn't you say?

A lot of personal finance bloggers would tell you that you should always live the frugal life; that's a great opinion to have and if you walk your talk, you're good to go. However, many people cannot live the way you do.

They are married and are the sole providers of their families. Or they have kids or parents to care for. Obligations that they may have acquired at a younger, less financially-aware age.

No matter. For the average man or woman on the street, having a job that fits their basic lifestyle needs is hard to come by right now. And I don't really see any relief on the horizon.

I will say, though, that lots of times the turn in the business cycle is unseen until it happens right in front of your eyes. That is to say, often times nobody sees it coming. Leading indicators are only so good. As they say, "hindsight is 20-10."

Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Next up: Deficits are bad

unemployment, economy, economic myths, three economic myths

You see, at the end of July, July 31 to be exact, I was laid off. I knew it was coming as it was part of the transition plan to acquire Washington Mutual by JP Morgan Chase.

So what have I been up to the past few months? At the beginning of August, I took the family on a long vacation (3 weeks) up through Oregon, then west to the Oregon coast, and back down. We stayed at a large ranch, visited Ashland (the Shakespeare Festival), saw my cousins in Junction City near Eugene, then we stayed 5 days in Portland.

Portland is a beautiful city. We took bike rides (that first mile up the trail in Forest Park is a killer, what with me towing a double-wide Chariot bike trailer loaded with my two boys), went to the Children’s Museum and the Portland Zoo, visited Powell’s (a killer bookstore).

Then we went to Astoria (nice coastal city) and stayed a few days. Then we went south, through Gold Beach (the 25 miles south of Gold Beach is the most spectacular coastline I’ve ever seen and I live in California), and many coastal towns between there and my home.

We had a wonderful time.

I am in no mood to look for more work, either. I kind of like staying home. But for now, that’s a big dream I have. October might be the month where I get really serious about a job. I will be looking in the Portland and Seattle areas, though — that’s for sure. Places like REI, Columbia, Yakima, Nike, and a few others come to mind as places I’ll target to find gainful employment.

I’ve let the blog carnivals slip. I kind of dread sifting through all the posts because there’s got to be a ton of them. I most likely will break them up into 5 or 10 bit chunks, just to manage them better and give each post more attention. Sound good?

In the meantime, I’ve got a ton of stuff to do around the house. I’ve reorganized the office closet and have eliminated a lot of clutter (but there’s a lot more). We’re going to be redoing the front patio with tile. We’ll also being laying down some more sod in the front and back yards.

Plus, we’ve got our back yard landscaping plans back. I haven’t even looked at them yet. This is one project where I’ll have to really think about how to chunk it up into much smaller pieces because if I tackle it all together, I will literally kill myself!

Also on my list of to-dos is to install (or have installed) a door in the office that leads to the new back yard.

Boy, have I got a lot of work to do!

I don’t have time to look for a job.

Meanwhile, I am still laying the foundation for my eventual exit from the corporate world. I have redesigned a lot of my sites and hopefully will be able to put a lot of them on semi-autopilot (I have tried “autoblogging” software and I just really don’t like the outcome on anything other than a news blog), so I’ll be posting a lot to my sites:

• Muscle-Build.com and here
• Affiliate Central
• Internet-Marketing-Muscle.com
• Hardgainer’s Manifesto and here

Computer Monkeys will get a redesign, too (at least the blog will) as well as a lot more posts added.

Photo-dodo is on hiatus. I love photography and took a ton of photos while on vacation, but I just don’t foresee finding the time to devote to the site.

That’s it for now. I hope to make some contributions to this site in the very near future.

By the way, if anybody wants to guest-post, I’m all ears!

Leave me a comment if you want to make a guest post or two about personal finance (please, no topics other than PF).

No, two of the best and most objective forecasters, who are not connected to investment banks or to the CNBC noise machine, have recently called the upturn. Macroeconomic Advisers, the St. Louis-based consulting firm that compiles a monthly GDP index, reported to its clients Monday that while second-quarter GDP was tracking at negative 0.1 percent (recession), the third quarter was tracking at 2.4 percent growth.

The recession is over! (Technically.) – By Daniel Gross – Slate Magazine

Layoffs Aren’t the Main Problem – Economix Blog – NYTimes.com

What makes the Great Recession different from all other recent recessions is not mainly the number of workers being laid off. It’s how few workers are being hired.

Read the full story here -Layoffs Aren’t the Main Problem – Economix Blog – NYTimes.com

The map at the link shows unemployment by county over the entire United States. Sadly, note that the data is from January; things have gotten worse since then.

Here’s a snapshot of the map; however, click the link below for a more interactive view.

The darkest areas suffer the highest rates of unemployment.

The Geography of a Recession – Interactive Graphic – NYTimes.com

MADISON, Wis. – A nurse was called out of surgery so a manager could tell her she was being laid off.

What is wrong with people?

Get a job!

Yeah, this is a big post. I haven’t written anything substantial in a while. As you may know, if you’re a subscriber or frequent reader, I work for a company that’s been — ahem — “acquired” and I’m going to be looking for a new job real soon. I could lament about the fact that it’s the 4th quarter, nobody’s hiring, the holidays are near, nobody’s hiring, I’m a single-income family, soon to be zero-income family, nobody’s hiring…but…

You didn’t come here for that!

You, like me and thousands of others, either are looking for new jobs or soon will be. The economy tanking, the government doing its best impersonation of Sergeant Schultz (“I see nuuuthing!!!”), and companies increasingly getting by with less have all lead to higher numbers of unemployed, and an almost-never-uttered underemployed. That is to say, there are thousands, maybe millions, of people who have full-time jobs that don’t pay much or they have several part-time jobs that — again — don’t pay well. In any event, neither group is making ends meet nor are they counted amongst the unemployed (if you’re not looking for a job, you don’t count).

This post will cover three ways of earning an income. Mix and match, go solo, or do all three — it’s completely up to you. There’s the “traditional” way, the “alternative” way, and the “passive” way. First, the traditional way. But with some unconventional twists.

Traditional

Most of us want a “job” where we trade our time and knowledge (otherwise known as “work”) for money. We produce a product, sell a service, build a bridge, write a book, etc., all in return for a paycheck that either comes once a week, twice a month, or once a month.

Millions of people — the majority, in fact — who consider themselves “employed” (as opposed to unemployed or self-employed) have jobs. It’s supposed to be — and usually is — a symbiotic relationship, in that both the employer and employee gain something from the relationship.

I’ve had lots of jobs. Too many in fact! If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s how to get a job! And I’ve had many different kinds of jobs. Here’s a short list:

• Concession stand salesman
• Yellow pages seller
• Retail store manager and salesperson
• School teacher
• IT help desk
• Systems Analyst
• Auditor
• Manager, credit card operations
• CEO, computer consultancy
• Print press operator

(not in chronological order)

With each job, save for one, I boosted my income considerably from one job to the next. However, that one set back killed my income growth for 3-4 years!

Nevertheless, here’s what you need to do to get a job. It’s a long list. The short list will come later.

• Make yourself employable. This means get a college degree if the job you want requires it, the technical certification if the job requires it, the law degree and BAR exam passage if you want to be a lawyer, the credential if you want to be a teacher, etc. This step requires the most planning, patience, and time. But short-cuts abound.
• Get a long list of references together. Get names, phone numbers, addresses, and emails. Get letters of recommendation. In short, network!
• Speaking of networking, sign up for LinkedIn. There are a whole host of things you can do here. Check out Guy Kawasaki’s blog post about using LinkedIn to its fullest. Get LI “endorsements.”
• Keep in touch with all of your classmates, teachers, co-workers, and employers (past and present). Talk to them long before you need to, lest your calls be labeled what they are — job calls.
• Seek out companies you want to work for. Research them. Find out things about them that is not common knowledge (but make sure it’s objective and flattering). Put together a list of companies that you want to target for job opportunities. Find out who works there (using LinkedIn or other resources). Talk to them!
• Be especially mindful of the Human Resources department where you currently work or worked. Use the recruiters there to find recruiters at other companies or headhunters / job search firms (they all talk to each other). If you’re currently in school, utilize your Employment Opportunities folks. Turn an internship into a job!
• Open accounts at Monster.com, HotJobs.com, and CareerBuilder.com. Submit resumes and create cover letters. Update daily.
• Find local job and resume boards and post your resume there. 
• Use Craigslist.com for job opps. Post a “jobs wanted” ad (free) listing, using it as an announcement that you are available. It’s another form of broadcasting your resume.
• Network!
• Be on the lookout for opportunities at companies that you didn’t target. For example, you may prescribe a solution to a company that takes a real liking to you. Don’t forget that the CEO of Craigslist got his job by posting his resume on Craigslist. Obviously not a common occurrence, but if him, why not you? Luck = Preparation + Opportunity
• Network!
• Don’t be afraid to “go home.” If you liked a job but left out of frustration or the need to explore other opportunities, go back if that’s what your heart desires. We all get caught up in “you can’t go back home -itis” but you can. It’s your life. Do what makes you happy. Swallowing pride is not that hard if the outcome is what you truly want.
• Did I mention networking?

The short list: