The Dow Jones average is back to where it was before. The American job market still has a long way to go.
There is less to these charts than meets the eye. Stock prices and jobs are rebounding, but investors are not doing all that well, and job-seekers are doing worse.
The Dow Jones average for the past six years has not kept up with inflation, even though the rate of inflation is extremely low. And the bottom chart shows just how slow the rebound in jobs has been compared to previous economic recoveries. Just as the stock market ought to keep up with inflation, the job market ought to keep up with population growth. In other words, even when the number of jobs gets back to what it was in 2007, we’ll still be behind.
The official unemployment rate for April was 7.5 percent. Economist David F. Ruccio pointed out that this means there are 11.6 million Americans still looking for work, four years after the supposed beginning of the economic recovery.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports its U-6 rate of unemployment, which includes jobless people who’ve given up looking for work, and part-time workers who want to work full-time, is 13.9 percent. This is 21.9 million Americans, roughly one in seven eligible workers.
Click on Why Good People Can’t Find Jobs — What You’re Up Against for a good report on why it’s tough to find a job.
Click on occasional links and commentary for David F. Ruccio’s web log, which is crammed with good information.
Tags: Economic recovery, Employment, Employment Growth, Job Growth, Stock Market
Phil Ebersole's Blog 
May 6, 2013 at 12:39 pm |
Don’t forget that the inflation metric we are fed in the news is diluted just like the U3 unemployment number. Anyone who pays any attention at all to the rises in healthcare costs just over the decade can attest that their pay isn’t rising as quick as the costs.
Something else to consider is how many people haven’t seen a raise in pay for years! The University System of GA hasn’t given its faculty or staff a raise for 5 years running now. People in this boat are becoming at the minimum, 3-4% poorer a year!
Check out my comparison of inflation metrics. Its interesting stuff.
https://blogtruth.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/the-fed-and-its-corporate-welfare-plan-headline-vs-core-cpi-and-more/
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May 7, 2013 at 6:08 pm |
U.S. Gov’t statistics don’t reflect in any way the decline in job quality; that is, the sinking actual pay and benefits.
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