Part The First
Structural and cyclicalAre like a popsicle.They'll melt when it's hotAnd won't when it's not,Seemingly fickle.
When dark clouds unfoldAnd the economy's cold,Structural and cyclical,Fall off the bi-cycle,Losing their hold.
The longer the chill,The longer they're ill.Bloated they become.But the pendulumIs volatile.
With the economy re-heatingAnd unemployment depleting,First cyclical,Then structural,Will begin their retreating.
When demand becomes firedAnd the cyclical are hired,Employers learnIt's the structurals turnTo be acquired.
For the time comes whenIt pays to train them.They become cyclically employedLeaving a structural voidWhich need not refill again.
Like a popsicle in the sun,Cyclical and structural become one.It's what free markets can doIf we allow them to.Let's finish what we've begun.
Part The Second
For analysts who can't findThe structurals left behindIn the jobless ratesOf recent dates.That data are the wrong kind.
Long in the queue,They retreated toThe sidelines whereThey're not counted thereAs unemployed too.
They're hidden awayEarning no pay,Statistically elusiveYet quite diffusive,Waiting for a better day.
That day will arrive,When demand comes alive.Enough work there'll beFor the ex-structural employee.Hidden unemployment will dive.
Meantime there's trainingTo help in attainingA skill that will beA good recipeFor a job that's sustaining.
Alfred Tella is a former Georgetown University research professor of economics.
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