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What is not at 2007 levels? Pay has gone up. Unemployment is much, much lower. There are huge numbers of high skilled and high tech jobs that cannot be filled.
Did you not read the article? Pay is not at 2007 levels.
Quote:
Median household incomes stood 1.6% shy of the 2007 level, before the last recession took its toll, and 2.4% below the all-time high reached in 1999.
People made more money in 1999.
If we had true shortages that absolutely had to be filled, pay would be much, much higher, long term unemployment would be way down, companies would be developing their workforce with OTJ training etc.... We aren't seeing that.
The cited data is about household income, which is still slightly lower than in 2007. Since then we have had a substantial decrease in the typical two parent households. Median salaries have moved above the inflation adjusted level of 2007 even though inflation adjusted household incomes are slightly below.
The impact is worse at the bottom of the economic ladder. In the bottom quintile, less than half the households have anyone working.
If we had true shortages that absolutely had to be filled, pay would be much, much higher, long term unemployment would be way down, companies would be developing their workforce with OTJ training etc.... We aren't seeing that.
You'd have to look at jobs that are experiencing shortages, not a snapshot of the entire workforce.
Any improvement is great, but we are still way behind, so lets not pat ourselves on the back so easily. Lots of work still to do when are aren't even at 2007 levels. Especially when the top have done so well. We are basically looking at a lost decade type of situation.
Every time I read or hear people saying, but we are not back at the 2007 levels, I think about why is that the standard. A lot of the levels reached in 2007 were based on the real estate bubble, ie an artificial temporary situation. Those levels were never going to hold. There are a lot of successful tech companies whose stock prices have never reached the levels they did during the tech bubble. If you compare their current prices to the height of the tech bubble they would look like they are doing horribly.
The loss of trillions of dollars of middle class wealth from the collapse of the real estate bubble is going to have a lasting affect that will take a long time to adjust to and recover from. Frankly I'm surprised we are doing as well as we are. I know at the time (2008/2009) I thought it was going to be a lot worse.
The loss of trillions of dollars of middle class wealth from the collapse of the real estate bubble is going to have a lasting affect that will take a long time to adjust to and recover from.
Every time I read or hear people saying, but we are not back at the 2007 levels, I think about why is that the standard. A lot of the levels reached in 2007 were based on the real estate bubble, ie an artificial temporary situation. Those levels were never going to hold. There are a lot of successful tech companies whose stock prices have never reached the levels they did during the tech bubble. If you compare their current prices to the height of the tech bubble they would look like they are doing horribly.
The loss of trillions of dollars of middle class wealth from the collapse of the real estate bubble is going to have a lasting affect that will take a long time to adjust to and recover from. Frankly I'm surprised we are doing as well as we are. I know at the time (2008/2009) I thought it was going to be a lot worse.
Did you not read the article? Pay is not at 2007 levels.
People made more money in 1999.
If we had true shortages that absolutely had to be filled, pay would be much, much higher, long term unemployment would be way down, companies would be developing their workforce with OTJ training etc.... We aren't seeing that.
Wages and business revenues are higher. The categories of interest, dividends, pensions, and annuities are much lower. At this stage in the economic expansion, the monetary stimulus is a drag on total income.
In dollars terms, the median wealth of a US household was $87,992 in 2003, and by 2013 had decreased 36% to $56,335. In contrast, the richest 10% actually saw their net worth increase from 2003 to 2013, with the highest gains going to the top 5%. The median wealth of the households in the top five percent grew over 12% during the same time period, from $1,192,639 to $1,364,834.
Happiness-is-close asked "How long? It has been almost a decade now."
Take the above example to get back to the 2003 from 2013 at a 5% return it would take around 9 years. Clearly that is going to vary based on assumptions you make about were your wealth is invested.
I haven't checked the numbers, but I believe the median wealth in 2007 was higher than 2003.
Clearly it will take a long time for those near the median to recover.
Every time I read or hear people saying, but we are not back at the 2007 levels, I think about why is that the standard. A lot of the levels reached in 2007 were based on the real estate bubble, ie an artificial temporary situation. Those levels were never going to hold. There are a lot of successful tech companies whose stock prices have never reached the levels they did during the tech bubble. If you compare their current prices to the height of the tech bubble they would look like they are doing horribly.
The loss of trillions of dollars of middle class wealth from the collapse of the real estate bubble is going to have a lasting affect that will take a long time to adjust to and recover from. Frankly I'm surprised we are doing as well as we are. I know at the time (2008/2009) I thought it was going to be a lot worse.
"Compared with August 2015, the SA index rose 5.9%, the largest year-over-year gain since May also 5.9%. In July, the year-over-year increase was 0.2%. Year-to-date, compared with the same period in 2015, tonnage was up 3.5%."
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