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There’s still nothing like a government job. According to CNN Money, the Congressional Budget Office put out a report to compare which one’s better: a government or a private sector job. While income is dependent on education level, for the most part, working for the government is the way to go.

For those of you considering making a switch between the two sectors or looking for a job wherever you can find one, it’s important to note that it all boils down to benefits. For those with a high school diploma, government jobs not only pay 21 percent more than those working in the private sector, they have a substantially superior benefits package that is worth about 72 percent more.

Employees with a bachelor’s degree can expect to each about the same hourly wage in both the federal and private-sector. But federal workers make about 46 percent more from benefits. An employee with a master’s degree will also fare better working in government.

When it comes to those with advanced degrees such as law degrees and  PhDs, the numbers switch. Government workers with law degrees and other higher education degrees make about 23 percent less than they would in the private sector and the benefit packages are about the same.

Unfortunately for those looking specifically for a government job, the competition is stiff. Civilian government employees make up less than two percent of the US workforce.  If you want to try your luck, http://www.usajobs.gov/ is the best place to start.

It may not surprise you that black women have been hit the hardest by the economic crisis. The Washington Post reports that while other segments of the nation’s unemployed are slowly starting to find work, a study from the National Women’s Law Center found that black women have lost more jobs during the recovery than they did during the recession.

The national unemployment rate declined from 9.0 percent to 8.6. percent in November; but the Bureau of Labor Statistic reported that the unemployment rate for black women actually increased from 12.6 to 12.9.

And that doesn’t include the 150,000 women who have become too discouraged to continue looking for work. (You have to actively be searching for work in order to be included in the unemployment rate.)

The only bright spot in this dismal news is that President Obama proposed a jobs bill that funds the rehiring of teachers, jobs for veterans construction jobs and job training programs for low-income young people and adults.

We’ll have to see what Congress is going to do with this one…

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For as long as many of us can remember, we have seen the black women in our families work. Some scrubbing the toilets of other families, while others labored long, stressful office hours. Before it was the only way; most women had no choice. Becoming a homemaker-breadwinner hybrid, or superwoman, was the only option.

Thank God for giving us the strength and endurance to be more than we could ever imagine.

While white women used the feminist movement and education to get out of the home, black women have been searching for ways to stay inside. In our community it is a luxury to stay at home, an opportunity few black families can afford—whether it’s for lack of finances or a second parent.

Furthermore, there is also an underlying notion that being a housewife somehow diminishes one’s value, a belief that modern homemakers (particularly suburbanistas) are lazily wasting away their talents and academic achievements. It’s the place where traditional (or white) feminism and black womanhood conflict. But the rise of “mommy bloggers” and mompreneurs, such as Carol’s Daughter founder Lisa Price (who scheduled business hours around her family), are proof that there are benefits to being “kept,” and stay-at-homes moms are indeed utilizing their assets. Oftentimes, in more ways than they once did in the workplace.

Still, the decision to stay home is an internal struggle, as our hearts and minds pull us in different directions. Naturally, we want to be there for our children; we want to be present for every first and “complain” about the perils of carpooling. But, in the back of our minds, we also feel as if we will lose our independence in doing so.

I’ve been a stay-at-home mother for nearly three years and, in the beginning, my journey was one of isolation and confusion. Although most would attribute that to the percentage of unmarried black women, that was not the case at all, having the benefit of growing up with a stay-at-home mom, for me, this sort of self-sacrifice is normal if not ideal. Nevertheless, I also pride myself in being a smart, ambitious woman. So, when other women would give me that look in conversations or say things like, “But, you’re so smart,” I questioned my decision. In fact, at one point, I started interviewing again—thinking that was the way to be all-woman.  And, during those interviews I realized I could never leave my children to help make someone else rich. It was also during that time I began to understand the window of opportunity I had. My decision to stay at home ultimately gave way for me to pursue my dreams; it was liberating. Now, as an entrepreneur, I have the best of both worlds. My three-year-old is reading and work revolves around my schedule.

So, if you’ve been considering trading in your corner office for a cozy place in the kitchen, remember there is great freedom in being the Mommy-in-Chief, and you may actually find yourself in a place of greater independence.

LaShaun Williams is a Madame Noire contributor and columnist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and across several popular sites, such as HuffPost Black Voices and the Grio.  Follow her on Twitter @itsmelashaun and Facebook.

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In this economy you can appreciate your job. But appreciating your employment doesn’t mean you’ll skip into work everyday with a smile. Here are some ways you can get focused and get your mind right for the grind ahead of you.

Check out these tips and tricks over at Black Enterprise.com.

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by Alexander Cain

With unemployment continuing to climb to historical highs, people are facing a new frontier that they may be unfamiliar with: unemployment. Even those with exceptional qualifications are receiving the pink slips as organizations cut expenses due to a tough economic landscape. The book Landing on the Right Side of Your Ass by Michael Laskoff offers a real perspective on being unemployed and how to move onto your next job in the best way possible. The book’s author, Michael B. Laskoff, writes the guide speaking from his experiences of being fired and re-hired for numerous jobs no matter what the fallout with former employers. No matter what stage you are in with your unemployment, Landing on the Right Side of Your Ass is a real survival guide for picking yourself up and getting back out, and winding up with a job that’s better than the one you lost.

Let’s face it whether you have been fired or recently quit a job, it sucks. Now you are facing a multitude of thoughts and emotions as you try to navigate through the unknown. You should naturally be angry at the situation and not act as if everything is OK.  While some self-help guides tell you to initially let it go or relax, the author goes in a completely different direction.

Binge and Purge. Whatever activity you need to do in order to let your anger out, DO IT! Kick, yell, scream, lift weights, run until you grow a beard like Forrest Gump, do whatever is necessary to get out all of your anger and frustration. This initial rage period is to prevent you from blocking your emotions and crumbling at a time and place not of your own choosing.
The question now becomes how long does this anger phase last. If you are still giving one-hour sob stories about your manager being unfair, you might want to continue to let out the emotion.

Admit It’s Your Fault. The biggest tragedy a recently unemployed person can make is not to learn from his mistakes. While this might be a tough situation critiquing yourself, it’s a necessary evil in order to be successful in your next career. Still think you were completely in the right with your former situation? If you did nothing else, you agreed to accept the job in the first place which set you up for failure from the start. Really think about some of the mistakes you made with your previous job and be sure to write them down to keep in mind as you go about your next job search.

Get A Non-Professional Life. Go back to when you were working and think of the activities you always wanted to do, but didn’t have enough time to do. Whether it was volunteering or picking up a new hobby, now is the time to pick up that activity. This is good for two reasons: 1) to prevent you from smashing your computer due to frustration of looking for a job 24/7, 2) during your next interview you have something to talk about if asked about your employment gap and a hobby to show that you are a well-rounded person. There is never a better time to pick up an activity when you have all the free time of being unemployed.

So now you have gone through the heartache of being recently unemployed and after venting you feel ready to begin searching for jobs, Part 2 of the book Getting Ready provides you tips and tricks on how to be successful on your job search.

Monday morning, President Obama presented a plan for long-term debt reduction that included a tax hike for the “wealthiest corporations and richest Americans” who should “pay their fair share.”

GE Capital, which brings in billions of dollars in revenue, legally pays almost nothing in taxes. And billionaires, such as Warren Buffett, hold most of their capital in business assets which are taxed differently.

“Those who have done well, including me, should pay our fair share in taxes to contribute to the nation that made our success possible,” insisted the President. “Nobody wants to punish success in America,” he added, “This is not class warfare. It’s math.”

The plan also called for an end to the Bush tax cuts (which were designed to be temporary) for those with incomes of $250,000 or more, with the idea that increased tax revenue will enable continued funding of entitlement programs, nibble away at the national debt and pay for his stimulus jobs plan.

So, what does this mean for middle-class America?

Not much, really. Don’t expect to see any extra zeros on your bank statement.

Income and age restrictions on food stamps, housing assistance and federally-funded health care limit availability to victims of the recession who are not unemployed but drastically underemployed. Those who were truly middle-class (not just stretching a $35,000 salary to pay for an adjusted rate mortgage on a $300,000 house) do not qualify for welfare programs. Therefore, the President’s pledge not to support a “one-sided deal that hurts folks that are most vulnerable” mostly applies to the poor—a large percentage of which already qualified as poor.

Likewise, what incentive do wealthy individuals have to contribute more of their earnings to a federal government that has proven itself inadequate when it comes to managing money, especially when there is no guarantee that additional tax funds will be used properly? Republicans refuse to pass anything to credit Obama’s presidency; Democrats want to keep minorities hooked on entitlements; and, together they’ve decided what is best isn’t more important than re-election. Few are interested in paying for more Congressional dysfunction.

Job creation is the only thing that can save the middle-class and this economy. Furthermore, who puts people to work? Small businesses and corporations. Since banks won’t lend to small business owners or take chances on budding entrepreneurs with less than stellar credit, employment rests on the shoulders of Big Business. With Bank of America, the U.S. Postal Service and Best Buy scheduled to slash thousands of jobs; presumably a tax increase would further hinder job growth.

Ultimately, the “Buffett Tax” still leaves middle-class people with two choices: pig feet or chitlins.

But hey, he’s trying.

LaShaun Williams is a Madame Noire contributor and columnist whose work has appeared in The New York Times and on several other sites, including the Grio and HuffPost Black Voices. For more commentary on love, race, pop culture and politics, visit her blog Politically Unapologetic or follow her on Twitter @itsmelashaun and Facebook.  

I moved to the United States from Tanzania on a scholarship to the University of Chicago. I studied economics and did really well, so I worked in banking for a while when I finished school. But then my visa expired and I couldn’t get it extended. No one would hire me — it didn’t matter how capable I was.  So one day, I was walking around the city trying to think of jobs I might be able to do, and I saw windows all over the place — and I said `That’s it! I’ll be a window washer.’ So that’s what I did. It doesn’t matter if you have visa, as long as you have a Social Security number and pay taxes.

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Workers want to work, and almost every major politician has a plan to create jobs. Before convincing yourself that one plan is better than another, consider a few noteworthy facts and a couple of important realities. Recognize that investment and consumer spending are two sectors of the economy that usually reflect accelerated growth during an expansion—say eight calendar quarters from the bottom of a recession.

According to the official marker of recessions—the National Bureau of Economic Research—the most recent downturn ended in June of 2009.

Eight calendar quarters later (June 2011), the Commerce Department reports that investment spending (9.1%) and consumer spending (4.3%) have accelerated nicely since the bottom of the recession. Growth in investment spending would have been even higher had the residential housing sector (-3.1%) not continued to slump over the period.

Clearly, housing investment is one area where we would usually see more growth at this point in the business cycle. More housing would mean more construction jobs, plus more jobs in the industries that produce goods and services that are associated with the production, maintenance, and operation of homes and households.

Why aren’t more houses being built? Mainly because mortgage bankers were burned during the 2007-2009 recession and they are now very reticent to issue new mortgages. How reticent are they to lend?

According to the June 2011 Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Flow of Funds Accounts, commercial banks now hold about $100 billion less in mortgages than they held in 2007 before the housing bubble began to burst; about $300 billion less than they held in mortgages at the height of the housing market in 2008.

More importantly, commercial banks are holding $1.3 trillion in reserves at the FRB today, compared with just $18 billion in 2007. A similar story holds for chartered commercial banks. New households are forming all the time with housing requirements, and every prospective home buyer has not defaulted on a mortgage. However, banks remain tightfisted when it comes to extending new mortgages.

It seems that banks want to see improved economic conditions before they begin to lend more freely. However, their reticence to lend is preventing improved economic conditions from developing. It’s a “Catch 22.”

What we know is that the economy is not likely to improve significantly until banks begin to release some of the cash that they are hoarding and begin to finance investment in homes and in businesses. Therefore, any plan to create jobs that is to have a chance at success must address this fundamental issue. Whether they are offered loan guarantees, loan subsidies, or tax credits, banks must be incentivized to lend more vigorously. At the same time, banks should not be rewarded for holding vast volumes of reserves at the FRB.

However, even if all of these actions are taken, there is one additional “Catch 22” about which we should be aware. Banks, in large measure, opt not to lend during uncertain times to private sector borrowers when the government offers investment returns that are certain—albeit at low levels. A small certain return trumps a larger uncertain return.

A popular mantra is that we need the economy to grow to create jobs and to increase tax revenues in order to reduce the Federal deficit and debt. Yet the economy will not grow until banks lend to the private sector. However, banks will not lend to the private sector as long as the government continues to expand its deficit and debt by offering safe investment returns,

It appears that we are in a double “Catch 22”?

Dr. B.B. Robinson is an economist and director of BlackEconomics.org, a resource for economic concepts, issues and policies affecting African-Americans.

(Forbes) — 1. Work-at-home scams have been around for decades. In the past few years, the FTC has seen the number of complaints nearly double. Legitimate work-at-home jobs exist, but you’ll need to do some homework to avoid the too good to be true operators. For tips, see AARP’s advice here. The home-based work website ratracerebellion.com, a website co-founded Christine Durst, an internet fraud and safety expert, for example, prescreens job leads.

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(Chicago Defender) — State Rep. Monique Davis, D-27th Dist., recently sponsored and got passed state legislation that would study the plight of African Americans in this state.  PA 97-0460 authorizes the assembly of a Commission to End the Disparities Facing the African American Community Act to look at health, employment criminal justice, education and other issues besetting African American Illinoisans.

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