We’ve heard the word “jobs” more frequently in the past seventy-two hours than we heard “winning” during the great unraveling of Charlie Sheen. As the world markets react to President Obama’s American Jobs Act, we’ve just finished compiling our analysis of all this “jobs” talk.
In his speech last night, President Barack Obama said the word, “jobs,” 37 times. He definitely gave his number a boost by naming his legislation the American Jobs Act. He also helped himself out by saying, “Pass this jobs bill…” almost as many times as Speaker Boehner rolled his eyes.
As for the Republicans debating to becoming the 45th President of the United States, in total the word was collectively spoken 59 times.
While President Obama was the clear winner, it bears point out that the GOP’s field of candidates were sharing the stage and were being asked a multitude on a broad range of topics. Clearly, they were all looking for ways to turn the conversation to jobs.
Now the point of this tally is not to celebrate who said “jobs” the most. Rather, we want to call attention to a critical component of the jobs crisis that every single candidate missed. That aspect is “fit.” As I’ve said before, 46 percent of new hires in U.S. companies fail within the first 18 months. This excessive failure rate creates a massive hidden tax on employers and on the American consumer. This is a self-imposed tax. And, the good news is that we don’t need congress to repeal it. All companies need to do is to focus on hiring workers who truly fit their work environment and corporate culture. The impact of eliminating this “Turnover Tax” could be far greater than whatever payroll tax break the President may or may not get Congress to pass for 2012.
At Bullhorn, we process 100,000 new job openings and roughly 20,000 new hires for our customers every month. We see first hand all the time, energy and money that the Turnover Tax consumes. So, I’m encouraging businesses to stop waiting on Washington to solve this crisis for us. It’s time to start focusing on that which we can control. Figure out who your organization really is at its core, understand your corporate culture and find people that fit. Do this and we’ll all save time, money, and more importantly, get the great American economy going again.
As this political season continues to develop, we will continue to keep score because we’re committed to making “fit” a part of the national debate around job creation. We hope whether you agree or disagree, that you’ll join in on this conversation on our blog.