Jobs, Jobs, Jobs…What’s a job?

"We're not going to rest until we have seen not just a technical improvement in GDP, but until the American people's job prospects, their incomes have rebounded.”

Barack Obama, July 31, 2009

Unfortunately, since the President made that statement four months ago joblessness has continued to worsen. Many have opined that part of the problem is that the policies of this Administration are at best slowing economic recovery and job creation, and likely even making matters worse. Thanks to Michael Cembalest, CIO at JPMorgan Private Bank, for uncovering perhaps one of the reasons why the power-brokers in this Administration have so miserably failed to grasp what really works. Compared to the 18 other Presidential Administrations since 1900, Barack Obama has certainly made one very notable “change” – he has nearly eliminated any private sector experience in his key cabinet positions. The disdain for the private sector by the Obama Administration is palpable and dangerous.

Writing for Forbes.Com, Cembalest explains his undertaking; “In a quest to see what frame of reference the administration might have on this issue (job creation), I looked back at the history of the Presidential Cabinet. Starting with the creation of the Secretary of Commerce back in 1900, I compiled the prior private-sector experience of all 432 cabinet members, focusing on those positions one would expect to participate in this discussion: Secretaries of State; Commerce; Treasury; Agriculture; Interior; Labor; Transportation; Energy; and Housing & Urban Development.”

As the following Cembalest chart demonstrates, there is virtually no one within the President’s Cabinet that has even a glimmer of private sector experience. America has a bunch of people in charge of creating something they have never, never, never witnessed. Is it any wonder that the only sector where jobs are growing is in government? Exactly the only kind of “job” these people have ever seen.