Obama, Romney offer different solutions to unemployed

(CBS News) WAYNESVILLE, Ohio - Americans are living in hunger. The Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that nearly 15 percent of households - almost 18 million - don't have enough money to feed themselves adequately.

One reason, of course, is unemployment. The next report on that comes out on Friday, the day after the Democratic National Convention ends.

The report comes as Tim Perry, like many other Americans, is a labor statistic again. For the second time in the past four years, he is out of work.

"It just seems like there's so many jobs that I apply for and I hear nothin' from 'em," Perry said.

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The 44-year-old lost his first job as a fork lift operator at the Wilmington, Ohio, facility of Airborne Express in 2008.

"I felt that the world kind of ended," Perry said.

Perry was one of some 8,000 workers let go when the facility was shut down. He had spent 20 years, more than half his life, working there.

He remembered being unsure of his job prospects at that point.

"Didn't know what I was gonna do," Perry said. "I planned on retirin' there."

Retrained as a heating and air conditioning technician, Perry found work at a Dayton company called Commercial Parts & Service and felt "relieved."

"I felt real good about myself again," he said.

But the pay was lower. Perry has a wife and four children to support, two with type 1 diabetes. So this year, when CSX - a transportation supply company - offered him a train conductor's job with first class health insurance, he took it. Then last month, just 19 weeks after he started, he was laid off again.

"It came as a major shock," Perry said.

Both presidential candidates promise to improve the job picture.

President Barack Obama promises to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent to give businesses more money to hire. He also pledged to put $3 billion into job retraining to help 22 million workers.

Republican nominee Mitt Romney would cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent as a part of a plan to create 20 million jobs in the next 4 years. He supports job retraining, but would ship the burden to states and private companies.

Tim Perry recently returned to the heating and air conditioning company he had worked for, looking for his old job back. He said he thinks he has great qualifications.

"I feel like I'm a great candidate for a job," Perry said. "If somebody takes a chance on me, they'll never regret it."

Like Tim Perry, nearly 13 million Americans are waiting for that same chance.

[sallychicago]

In actuality, it's been like that (layoffs, rehires) since 2001, if I'm any example. In 2000 my company went out of business, I was hired by another that year and let go in 2001. It took me until 2004 to find another "full" time job and that lasted 6 months. In 2005 I was hired and worked until last month. It's just a bumpy road. The only "sure" job seems to be a government job...because if you work for private industry, don't hold your breath, you might be let go.

Until the government can get a handle on private companies and how they let people go (short notice, no severance pay), then we can expect this going forward. Temp jobs are plenty, full time permanent jobs, not so much.

[nohater]

it the man is certified as a HVAC, heating ventilation air-conditioning, technician would think there are jobs in large populated states. if you have a job, don't quit unless you have a nice sum saved up to get you through a year if you lose the new job. bird in the hand is worth two in the bush applies as always. how he ever envisioned lifetime employment as a forklift operator is a mystery unless it has a strong union of some sort.

[RXCW]

Hunger in America? This is so much "PR". Give everybody who wants food 100 lbs of beans 100 lbs of brown rice and dried milk and they will never go hungry. I don't think that food stamps for Coke and Twinkies are solving the problem.

[Missouri12]

Who cares as long as the CSX head cheese gets his $27 million pay check this year and has good window fittings on his $2.3 million second house he just bought.

CBS should investigate why the tax-payers are paying for the railroad workers training via tech schools.

[pbarber12]

I find it interesting that both candidates offer the same solution to unemployment. It is obvious they both need a economic history lesson: tax the rich at 50% to 95% and guess what they do - invest in corporations - which creates jobs - because now the companies have capital. The rich want dividends, and the companies need to perform. Remember companies typically don't pay taxes, since they convert their profits to expenses to avoid the IRS/state taxes. Eisenhower's private rich tax rate went all the way up to 95%. At Reagan's time it had been reduced to 50% when he entered office.

Next, we need our Great Depression banking laws back in place. The banks are not loaning their money, instead they are using their profits to play the stock markets against their investors - the retirement funds, etc. and are selling derivatives schemes to our municipalities which are forcing them into bankruptcy because they don't understand the complexity of the agreement they just signed. The banks are totally out of control and have no incentive to make loans to our desperate small business that produce 85% of the jobs. Banks used to be separate from investment firms, but now the laws have been changed, so that our banks have no incentive to help the little guy - the family run business. The banks use their extra money to play Wall Street. They need to be stopped.

So, currently the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Our banks are creating financial havoc. They even went overseas and sold derivatives to Greece, and now Greece has a huge debt. Amazing what can happen when banks are let lose on the public with no proper regulations in place. Now Greece and the U.S. people are at their mercy. In the U.S, 24 million are unemployed and 15 million don't have enough money to feed themselves per month.

[tsigili]

While neither candidate has a clear program to create jobs, it is clear that Obama is not creating jobs of substance, that pay well. Most of the jobs created since he took office are low paid.

The unemployed need to look at the hard reality, of they need another option, and the best alternative they have is Romney.

[jeansandjacketrequired]

What is Romney going to do to create more jobs of substance? Nothing really. Plus he is going to deregulate banking so banks can lend without having the actual cash to back up their loans.. that's what caused the banking meltdown of 2008. Romney is no winner here.

[swtaprl]

I disagree. Romney will do what he knows how to do -- cut the fat and move the lean around so it will be more productive, even at the expense of the workers of this country. After all, if a company can get its goods made somewhere else and it's cheaper to do so, why not? The profit margin is higher that way. That's the bottom line for a venture capitalist. What do I have to do to make my money grow faster?

[Furloughed]

I was also laid-off or "furloughed" as they call it as soon as I completed my 18 weeks of training. They claim you will have options, but no-one including the union reps or anyone else really gives two-cents about what happens to you. These new hires are not dumb or they couldn't of completed the training that you go through. We thought we had a great opportunity and alot of us gave up good jobs to pursue this career. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind this, but it would give Obama a so called "job creator" a speech on how many jobs he's created. Go ROMNEY and RYAN!

[jeansandjacketrequired]

Ahh.. Romney and Ryan aren't going to help you either.

[tmittelstaed]

"...We thought we had a great opportunity and alot of us gave up good jobs to pursue this career..."

So how much do you get paid for posting this tripe?

Nobody with any brains would have given up a good job in the last 4 years since the Bush recession started.

[taxslave1965]

The man in this story should probably give back the equipment that he stole from CSX such as the trainman lantern. Maybe he can't find work because he's too stupid to even realize that he's a thief. After all, he readily displayed the evidence on national TV.

[CONCERENED]

Why should he give the equipment back they furloughed him .They didn't fire. One person he worked with was on furlough for 2 years before they called him back

[Laid-Off]

I was also laid-off by CSX after completing my training and from what I can gather they are doing this to thousands of new hires. The way I understand it is CSX gets grant money from the government to train new employees, and they put that money in their pockets and then lay the new hires off. By hiring thousands of unwanted employees, it creates false job creation numbers for the government to report. Whatever you do, DO NOT QUIT ANOTHER JOB TO GO TO WORK FOR CSX!!!! You will end up on the street just like myself and thousands others have. Maybe CBS News should do an in depth investigation into the corruption of CSX's hiring practices.

[jeansandjacketrequired]

your problem not mine. I am the GOP!