Today's data release confirms that job creation remains disappointingly sluggish; and, if Congress continues to bicker and dither, our unemployment problems risk getting even more deeply embedded in the structure of our economy. Indeed, each day that passes without a meaningful policy response means that this national crisis becomes much harder to solve.
Between the estimate for August job creation (96,000) and the revisions to the numbers for June and July, the three month average has now dropped to below 100,000 -- a number that does not even keep up with population growth let alone put a dent in joblessness.
To make things worse, August saw no growth in average earnings. Both hours worked and hourly earnings came in flat.
What about the longer-term indicators?
Too many Americans continue to drop out of the labor force -- 368,000 in August alone. While the result is a lower unemployment rate (8.1%), we should not be misled by this widely-quoted headline number. The labor participation rate continues to fall and, at 63.5%, is at a multi-decade low.
There are other flashing yellow lights signaling the deep rooted nature of this crisis.
Notwithstanding citizens dropping out of the labor force, 5 million Americans were classified in August as "long-term unemployed." Meanwhile, teenage joblessness rose to over 24% -- an alarming level given the risk that out of work youth face in going from being unemployed to being unemployable.
All this calls -- very loudly and persistently -- for a comprehensive policy response out of Washington, D.C. -- along the lines that President Obama proposed to Congress last year. But with both houses so deeply divided and polarized, the best we should expect out of DC is policy activism just out of the Federal Reserve. Unfortunately this is insufficient.
As hard as Ben Bernanke and his Fed colleagues try -- and they have been trying very hard, taking monetary policy ever deeper into unfamiliar/experimental territory -- the institution does not have the proper tools to deal with our unemployment crisis.
The bottom line is a simple one. It should concern us all as citizens and parents. And it is worth repeating over and over again:
If Congress is not careful, these trends will further increase an already-material risk that, for the first time in a very long time, our children's generation may be worse off than that of their parents.
Jeffrey Sachs: Economic Policy Beyond Gimmicks
For example, here's two different equations that have the same answer:
A. 2 + 2 = 4
B. 2 X 2 = 4
Looks the same but they're not the same. The results are the same but the explanation and comprehension are different. Same is true with Dept. of Labor data.
Reagan - dems controlled congress
Clinton - reps controlled congress last 6 years of his 2 terms
So if you want to vote for BO, vote for reps in congress.
When the same party controlls everything, we get that Pelosi crap about having to vote for a bill before you can find out what is in it. She should have been run out of congress for that level of stupidity.
Nothing about this recovery has been particularly encouraging. Americans have been rehired at low wages, whether temp jobs, retail or low skill manufacturing jobs. Meanwhile, millions of Americans are stuck paying overpriced mortgages. To top it off, the bailouts, particularly QE1, QE2, have allowed for rampant speculation on Wall Street, driving up the prices of food and commodities.
So it should be no surprise that our low wage recovery is accompanied by all the same destructive patterns (unequal income gains, rising household debt), that led to the financial crisis.
Simply pursuing the same behaviors to pump up short-term growth won't cut it. Recovery and reform need to go hand in hand.
1. Jobs and manufacturing jobs have been offshoring since the 70s. Nixon went to China, and Clinton signed NAFTA.
2. HOUSING. We gotta fix housing, but people can't buy houses flipping burgers, but, ah, those good jobs went to China and India.
3. BOOMERS: the richest cohort in US history, but also the cohort with the highest debt to savings ratio - are retiring en masse.
4. Teenagers: 26% unemployment because jobs they used to do legally and on the books like dishwashing, landscaping, working in Joe Pop's Garage, etc. are now done by, oops, illegals for cash who aren't paying SS taxes, Medicare, medicaid, and state income taxes. I know because I deliver pizza and our cook is from La Esperanza, Honduras! He's got a nice house down there...paid for by cash.....GEEZ, who's stupid now? Americans or Illegals?
But that's been the case for the past several generations.
Infrastructure pays for itself 10 x's over in time...
All this deficit talk is bunk a Cunard...
We can only growing out of what is for 60% or more of us a Depression..!
With the National debt now over $16 trillion and growing at $1.3 trillion each year, how have you arrived at the alternate reality where ...' Government borrowing is at an all time low...'?
working or looking for a job -- fell to 63.5 percent, the lowest since 1981. For men, the labor-force
participation rate was the lowest on record, at 69.8 percent, notes Neal Lipschutz at the Wall Street
Journal's Real Time Economics blog.
The majority's reaction to these numbers on Friday was that they were an awful sign, that the job market
is so bad that hundreds of thousands of people every month are simply giving up in despair. We have
growing numbers of people sitting around doing nothing, losing their job skills and their ability to buy
stuff.
VOTE FOR ROMNEY FOR HOPE AND CHANGE
Okay Republicans, before you start chanting the talking points, and reciting the "Obama's failed policies" mantra, read what Mr. El-Erian has said. Think about it, and understand that the President has proposed sound policies, and it is entirely the fault of Republicans who are obstructing the President's policies that our economy is sluggishly dragging along.
Present the proofs of your statement of fact that ' it is entirely the fault of Republicans who are obstructing the President's policies that our economy is sluggishly dragging along. ..' (and may I complement you for repeating that overused and very tired, talking point!)