Jeff Duncan: “Yesterday, I read one news item and heard another, both of which caused me great concern. One was the headline in the…”

“Yesterday, I read one news item and heard another, both of which caused me great concern. One was the headline in the Knoxville News-Sentinel which said, ``Tennessee Economic Outlook Grim.'' Now, Tennessee has become one of the most popular places to move to in the whole country. Also, our economy is very diversified and not overly dependent on two or three big-ticket items and, thus, not as subject to the boom-and-bust cycle seen in some other places. So if Tennessee's economic outlook is grim, it causes me great concern about the economy in the Nation as a whole. The second item was a report on a national news cast that said Dell Computer and some other leading companies were withdrawing job offers previously made to people about to graduate from college. The report said that Dell was announcing additional layoffs which will soon total about 6,000, or 10 percent of their workforce, in addition to the withdrawn job offers. Over the years, I have had many parents and grandparents bring their children or grandchildren who have graduated from college to me for help in getting jobs. For the most part, they are good-looking young people and have made very good grades, but who are unable to find jobs. Many young people are going to graduate schools today because they cannot find good jobs with just a bachelor's degree, as in the past. Also, many young people are majoring in subjects in which there are almost no jobs.”