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More temps now than ever. Same amount of actual jobs as we had about a decade ago. Larger workforce available, much of it due to legal and illegal immigration. Each worker is more productive than ever, which is a benefit to big business and manufacturers alike. Things are great, if you're at the top of the food chain. Stocks have done extremely well, but that is more a benefit to the leisure class. Not so much for the average American who derives the majority of their income from wages. My 401k made a hefty return, but that doesn't mean I have more spending money available.
Things seem quite stagnant for the majority. I work in manufacturing and I don't think it's been this busy for years. The downside is the majority of those workers are now working for a reduced hourly wage. Skilled workers are earning about the same, with a few earning a bit more. Many guys are earning a big chunk of their plunder from OT, which is often quite abundant. Normally, increased production demand is a big benefit for the masses, but these days, we produce so much with so few workers. Considering that about 8% of the workforce works in a manufacturing related occupations, this resurgence is not leading to a notable "trickle down" that one would see decades before.
Realistically, are things on the upswing or downswing?
Worse. Everything has been masked by the Fed buying bonds (printing money). Take that away and you have 2008 all over again. We haven't seen anything yet. People unfortunately are going to feel real fiscal pain when the illusion of the wealth effect wears off.
I haven't looked for a job in 2 years, but I think it has gotten better. Jobs are generally stable at the moment. Most of the fat has been trimmed off the payroll already. Companies are generally lean and making money. If the work force needed to be reduced, it would have happened somwhere from 08-11.
I haven't looked for a job in 2 years, but I think it has gotten better. Jobs are generally stable at the moment. Most of the fat has been trimmed off the payroll already. Companies are generally lean and making money. If the work force needed to be reduced, it would have happened somwhere from 08-11.
I don't think workforce reduction is the issue. The issue we are facing is we aren't seeing much job growth, and the few new jobs created don't pay the bills. Folks working in a traditionally well paying occupation with less competition don't have much exposure to the situation facing the bottom rung, and perhaps the majority of the workforce.
I don't know how true it is or whether it is politically tinge but I read much of the new job growth is part time, that full time jobs will be harder to come by as companies look for ways to get around the employer mandate and other regulations associated with Obamacare. It is true things are better than during the recession, but it has been one of the slowest recoveries since WW2.
Unemployment under President Barack Obama has remained high for the longest period since the Great Depression.
But the jobless rate has remained at or above 7.5 percent for 53 months, a period that has left an unusually large number of people out of the work force for so long that some of them will likely never work again
We have enough growth that the volume change, expressed as GDP increases, offsets the affects, for now, of efficiency gains.
That does leave the millions in increased unemployed/those who quit trying between 2007 and 2013 out of a job.
My big fear for us nationally is when, not if, the next recession starts, we'll be starting from a high unemployment, low workforce participation, low median hours worked (per BLS) rate.
America's Great Experiment at managing the economy hasn't produced much in the way of growth. As has been pointed out, unemployment is high, job quality is poor, and economic growth is anemic.
Take away the $85 billion/month in free money and things will fall away pretty quickly.
Think of it in terms of trying to start a fire with wet wood: as long as you keep throwing gasoline on the pile, you get some flames. Once you remove the gas, maybe a little of the wood catches, but most of it simply sizzles and steams before simply refusing the burn. That is pretty much our current economic model.
Eventually someone has to pay. In Greece the citizens have told the government 'no way'; the politicians got filthy rich off of their free wheeling spending, so the politicians will be required to figure out how to unwind the debt. In America we have yet to see who is going to foot the bill. Washington says it will be you and me.....but at some point the people are going to say 'no more'. We didn't benefit (jobs) and we are not going to pay for your spending binge.
My big fear for us nationally is when, not if, the next recession starts, we'll be starting from a high unemployment, low workforce participation, low median hours worked (per BLS) rate.
yeppers...it's going to get real interesting when we go into another slump....
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