Even though many candidates tried to make jobs and immigration a key issue in the recent election, it never got much traction, at least not to judge by the results. Still, the movement of jobs south of the border and to

Former presidential candidate Ross Perot used to be the champion of keeping good jobs at home but, reports the New York Times, his company opened a new center in

The outsourcing business, the paper also notes, is a marginal gain. It would save the Fortune 500 only $58 billion out of the more than $9 trillion they generate. As Daniel Akst points out, the American economy is the best in the world at generating jobs but the price of that flexibility is that companies are getting out of the health and welfare business.

Not altogether. Most of the middle class still gets its health insurance through employment but the value of that benefit is slowly being whittled away. And despite the posturing there is still not any clear majority for free trade.

It would be a much better bet if we had some means to support and retrain workers who lose their jobs in old and fading industries like autos. We’re still waiting to see a plan on that front.