A new Gallup poll says that “Six in 10 unemployed Americans say the next job they get is not likely to be one they want; instead, they’ll have to settle for one they don’t really want.”

People who do not like their jobs cannot move to ones they find more appealing. That will change when the recovery takes hold, even if that takes years. Then employees will do their best to migrate to the companies that they want to work for in the industries where they want to be employed.

This migration of people from one job to another will trigger a dangerous set of events. Companies have gotten used to having access to cheap labor. Firms have taken advantage of that to keep costs down. But, these companies have also taken the risk that these low-cost workers will leave as quickly as they can if they cannot get a raise or want to relocate to work they find more desirable. Some American firms will face a sudden surge in people who can and will quit. It will be expensive to replace those with employees with the proper skills. It will also be expensive to train new workers.

If worker satisfaction means anything to productivity, many companies will gain from an influx of people who will enjoy their work. These workers are also likely to have been displaced from the sectors in which they worked before the recession. That will be a benefit to many companies. They will see a return of “skilled” workers. That should have the effect of creating a more productive workforce at many companies.

Companies that have elected to drag the bottom of the employment barrel to find workers who were quickly dissatisfied will learn that short-term decisions make long term problems. Cheap gets expensive.

Douglas A. McIntyre

A new Gallup poll asked people to rate the honesty and ethics of a number of professions. Each was rated by respondents as having trustworthiness that was “high/very high”, “average”, or “low/very low”.

It is not at the bottom or top of the list where professions begin to fall into patterns which may reflect how Americans interact with the people they see many days. Clergy, for example, get a relatively poor rating. That is probably because they are seen as people who push their points of view about faith on others who don’t want to hear it.

Judges rate poorly, an indication of the cynicism with which Americans look at the justice system–a pillar of US government and the one which is critical to the impression of whether government is fair.

Bankers get low ratings. That should not come as a shock in a period when few people can get a loan, and there is still a perception that the bank industry was the trigger of the collapse of the credit markets, and therefore, the recession.

“Stability is generally the norm in Americans’ ratings of the honesty and ethics of professions, but Americans’ opinions do shift in response to real-world events, mostly scandals, that reflect poorly on a profession,” Gallup says. That does not save members of Congress and car sales people from a perpetual place at the bottom of the list. At least Congress still meets regularly and people still buy cars. That may be a sign of hypocrisy or perhaps just the need of Americans to be governed and drive from one place to another

Douglas A. McIntyre

“Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Nov. 19-21, 2010, with a random sample of 1,037 adults, aged 18 and older, living in the continental U.S., selected using random-digit-dial sampling.”