Since my posting of earlier today, I have since been on the St. Louis Federal Reserve (FRED) website. I came across several fascinating graphs; which to me imply anything but a stellar recovery in the jobs market that the headlines are screaming out at you from every direction.
Consider that since the year 2000, the workforce has increased by some 33 million people:
wheras the number of total jobs, including full time jobs, part time jobs, temporary jobs, increased by a mere 4 million:
Of these 4 million new jobs, exactly ZERO of them, are full time jobs.
The number of new part time jobs? An additional 28 million jobs. And dont forget the part time jobs can just as easily be 20 hours a week, or an hour a week. Real earnings are falling and the number of jobs you can actually live on remains stuck at 115 million--all the "added jobs" are marginal: marginal hours worked, marginal security (temp), marginal pay (part-time=low pay and no benefits). Hardly the recipe for a roaring labor market.
Another good read on the topic:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/wonkbook-were-seeing-the-jobs-but-wheres-the-growth/2012/03/12/gIQAEQP56R_blog.html