Tag: Jobs Growth

Put Americans Back To Work

Covid made companies take a hit on employees…..every attempt to get the workers back to work has failed and failed spectacularly …..even our president drank the kool-aid with the stupidity that if he cuts off any unemployment benefits and it will force workers back to the slavery they have had to endure….Biden and his pals in Congress (Manchin preeminent among them) kicked 8 million people off of extended unemployment in September, with the rationale that exacerbating their misery would spur them into the workforce and that cruel act translated into…197,000 new jobs…….he, Biden, caved to the business world and he got egg on his face…..how?

September showed conclusively that federal unemployment benefits weren’t solely to blame for people staying home.

Over the summer, 26 states ended their participation in federal unemployment benefits early, cutting off an additional $300 a week in an effort to get people back to work. The Biden administration chose not to step in and pay out benefits through the Department of Labor — even though several federal judges reinstated the benefits throughout July and August — and millions of Americans lost benefits.

Then the White House agreed with business groups’ and Republicans’ demands to allow the federal unemployment programs to end in September. In July, President Joe Biden said it “makes sense” for emergency federal aid for jobless Americans to end.

Now we know that the end of unemployment benefits isn’t strongly linked to job gains. Friday’s jobs report, the first to show the widespread effects on the labor market of ending enhanced unemployment, said the US added just 194,000 jobs in September. It captured the sentiment of cut-off workers around the country, not just in those 26 mostly Republican-governed states.

https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-september-jobs-report-federal-jobless-aid-congress-2021-10

The easy path is not always the best….and so far Biden has chosen the easy and avoided the heavy lift that is desperately needed….but that is what I expected when we elected yet another feckless centrist.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That New Jobs Report

The figures are out.

Looks like all predictions were a bit off this time around.

The new unemployment report for April is out, and the takeaway number didn’t come close to meeting expectations. Details:

  • The number: Employers added 266,000 jobs in the month, even though analysts had expected roughly 1 million, reports CNBC. The outlet characterizes the figure as a “huge letdown.” What’s more, the March increase of 916,000 was revised downward to 770,000.
  • The rate: The unemployment rate rose from 6% to 6.1%. Though a disappointment, that’s down from a record-high 14.8% last April, notes the Wall Street Journal.
  • 2 reasons: The AP sees the disappointing hiring figure as a sign that employers are struggling to find people to fill openings. Supply-chain problems also may be limiting what businesses can do, per the Journal.
  • Bright spot: The leisure and hospitality industry saw the biggest gain with 331,000 new hires, though that still leaves the industry 2.9 million jobs short of pre-pandemic levels. Those gains were offset by losses in other sectors, including manufacturing, retail, and temping in general.
  • A blip? At MarketWatch, Jeffry Bartash suggests that the April figures will likely end up being a “temporary blip” in the recovery. “Falling coronavirus cases and massive federal stimulus have turbocharged the economy and job openings have surged,” he writes. The US remains poised “for a summer of strong growth.”

These figures are not good….but why is this?

Maybe it is because the unemployment benefits are too generous?  (This is a GOP talking point)……

The new monthly jobs report came in way below expectations on Friday, with employers hiring 266,000 people in April instead of the 1 million or so expected by analysts. The report has reignited a familiar political debate amid the pandemic, with those on the right arguing that President Biden’s relief package is so generous that it encourages people to stay home instead of getting a job. Defenders of the aid, however, say it’s not that simple. Coverage:

  • Chamber’s view: The US Chamber of Commerce on Friday came out firing after the unemployment report, reports CNBC. “The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market,” it says. The chamber urged lawmakers to end “the weekly $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit,” asserting that 25% of those receiving it are making more money than they did when working.
  • Not so fast: The argument that extra benefits encourages people to stay home has been circulating for a while, and last month in the Los Angeles Times, business columnist Michael Hiltzik argued that it doesn’t hold water. “Economists have consistently debunked the idea that unemployment insurance benefits suppress job searching,” he writes. Those who say otherwise are citing anecdotes, not data, he adds.
  • Other factors: Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal dug into the issue of employers struggling to find workers, and the story cited a number of factors based on surveys. For one thing, people are afraid of getting COVID, especially in high-traffic places such as bars and restaurants; others cite child-care issues, because businesses are opening faster than schools.
  • One example: But the story notes that the extra unemployment benefits appear to be playing a role as well. The story quotes a concert promoter who wants to return to work in his own field and is avoiding taking other jobs because his $750 in weekly benefits makes that possible. “I really enjoyed what I did,” he says. “If the government is going to pay you to stay home, you’re going to do that unless that job you really want comes along.”
  • Biden vs. McCarthy: Expect the issue to intensify. Biden himself defended his rescue package on Friday in the wake of the jobs report, notes the Hill. “Help is here and more help is on the way and more help is needed,” he said. In contrast is this tweet from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “Today’s jobs report is a disappointment—just like President Biden’s plan to burden families with more taxes & more debt,” he wrote. “While Dems trap people in a cycle of fear & pay them NOT to work, it’s clear the best thing to do is end the crisis-era policies & get Americans back to work.”
  • Eye on the states: States may make their own moves. Montana, for example, plans to start offering bonuses to people who return to work, reports KRTV. It also plans to opt out early of the federal program that provides extra benefits—by the end of next month instead of September.

The arguments against the benefits are just outright BS…..has anyone tried living on $300 a week?

Personally I would listen to nothing the Chamber has to say….why?

They support all the voter suppression initiatives….for me that makes them the enemy…..and no one that I would consider reliable source.

So far most of the ‘owners’ of business that have a personnel problem and those that notoriously pay lower wages.

Think about this…the jobs that no one wants are the lower paid jobs…..why return to work for $200 a week when you can stay home and make $300?

I think this is a prime example that the minimum wage needs raising and quickly.

People would return to work if they were paid a living wage.

So stop bitching and do something about it!

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–07Jun19

We hear a lot by the conservs telling America about the “booming econ0omy” and the return of jobs under Trump…..

But the figures from last month are not showing that rosy or that optimistic….

Job creation skidded to a near-halt in May in another sign that the U.S. economic momentum is slowing.

Companies added just 27,000 new positions during the month, according to a report Wednesday from payroll processing firm ADP and Moody’s Analytics that was well below Dow Jones estimates of 173,000.

The reading was the worst since around the time the economic expansion began and the jobs market bottomed in March 2010 with a loss of 113,000. Since then, the private payrolls count has increased by 21.3 million.

“Job growth is moderating,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said in a statement. “Labor shortages are impeding job growth, particularly at small companies, and layoffs at brick-and-mortar retailers are hurting.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/05/job-growth-screeches-to-near-halt-in-mayprivate-payrolls-up-just-27k.html

The “economy” they speak of is the Wall St. econo0my not the Main Street economy……keep that in mind as you prepare for the search for a candidate in the 2020 election.

Since the pundits say the economy will be the main issue in the 2020 election……maybe the voter should keep a close eye on the facts not the political spin.

Learn Stuff!

Then VOTE!

Closing Thought–08Jun18

Last week Pres. Trump made a statement about the jobs report and the markets were happy….well at least for awhile….

I have a problem with the jobs reports…not because of Trump I have been bitching about them since Poppy Bush’s days……these reports are not accurate and the unemployment figures are off by a lot……

In an article that I found last week there is some saying that as many as 95 million people are no longer in the labor force and as such are not counted in any of these reports……

In what was otherwise a solid jobs report – one which Donald Trump may or may not have leaked in advance – in which the establishment survey reported that a higher than expected 223K jobs were added at a time when numbers below 200K are expected for an economy that is allegedly without slack, the biggest surprise was not in the Establishment survey, but the household, where the unemployment rate tumbled once more, sliding to a new 18 year low of 3.8%, even as the participation rate declined once again, as a result of a stagnant labor force, which was virtually unchanged (161.527MM in April to 161.539MM in May, even as the total civilian non-inst population rose by 182K to 257.454LMM).

What was perhaps more interesting, however, is that for all the talk that the slack in the labor force is set to decline, precisely the opposite is taking place, because in May, the number of people not in the labor force increased by another 170K, rising to 95.915 million, a new all time high.

Adding to this the 6.1 million currently unemployed Americans, there are 102 million Americans who are either unemployed or out of the labor force (and it is also worth noting that of those employed 26.9 million are part-time workers).

In other words, contrary to prevailing economist groupthink, there is a lot of slack in the economy, and if as the latest Beige Book revealed, employers are now hiring drug addicts and felons to make up for the shortage of qualified candidates, a long time will be pass before wages see significant gains.

http://theantimedia.com/americans-no-longer-labor-force/

The figures that are given to the public are not accurate just like the inflation reports…..that is NOT an accurate count…..why?  Food, Gas and Housing are not part of the equation…….how can one get an accurate inflation picture if those sectors are omitted?

The economy may not be as booming as we have thought……just saying a little more accuracy would be helpful….at least to me.

Have a good Friday and I will return for the weekend…..be well, be safe….chuq

Laugh All You Want, but Marie Harf is Basically Right About Jobs and Jihadis « Antiwar.com Blog

Do you recall about a week ago or maybe it was two……when the MSM was having a good chuckle over a statement by a State Dept official about jobs are needed to fight ISIS….?

Well do you?  Probably not since we have had about a 100 new mini-crises since her comment…..she was belittled by some of the biggest names in the media……of course she took the most hits from FOX News….but that is expected when someone says something truthful and accurate……

I realize not many will find the time to actually care……But was she accurate in her statement?

 

Laugh All You Want, but Marie Harf is Basically Right About Jobs and Jihadis « Antiwar.com Blog.

A Real Jobs Plan

Sunday…last day of mental cleansing……

Unfortunately, I could not get away from the politics of the day….everybody has a jobs plan….well everybody but congressional GOP…..but few have a chance of passing the smell test…..but I found one that just makes sense (it is sarcasm)……

In the name of job creation, Florida state Rep. Ritch Workman (R) filed a bill this week to bring back “dwarf tossing,” the “barbaric and dangerous barroom spectacle that was imported from Australia and thrived briefly in Florida before it was outlawed in 1989,” the Palm Beach Post reports.

Said Workman: “I’m on a quest to seek and destroy unnecessary burdens on the freedom and liberties of people. This is an example of Big Brother government. All that it does is prevent some dwarfs from getting jobs they would be happy to get.”

And the Left is bitching that the Repubs do not have a jobs plan…see how wrong people can be?

It’s Demand, Stupid!

Keeping with my week of jobs and the economic thing……

The Prez made his speech to the joint session of Congress and the American people, after caving in to the political BS, and we now have his plan for jobs……..“intention to lay out a series of bipartisan proposals that the Congress can take immediately to continue to rebuild the American economy by strengthening small businesses, helping Americans get back to work and putting more money in the paychecks of the middle class and working Americans, while still reducing our deficit and getting our fiscal house in order.”

First of all…..YAWN!  This has about as much chance as I have being elected “Miss Teen America”…..

Now for the GOP plan for jobs creation……..a noun, a verb and tax cuts……..

Analysis…..a even bigger YAWN!

Let us try to be realistic….we need demand, not liquidity…….tax cuts will create liquidity and liquidity will create profitability and profitability creates NO jobs!  Is that easy enough for you?

But wait!  What is demand?………..analysis of demand with regard to consumer behavior and rationale when changes occur in variable factors such as price, income, substitute goods.

And then there is liquidity…….the ability to convert assets to cash quickly…….

Back in 2008, at the beginning of this present economic crisis I posted……

Governments in advanced countries have still not recognized this onset of a crash. They have proceeded on the assumption that the injection of liquidity into the system is all that is needed. It was thought initially that this injection could be achieved through the government purchase of “toxic” securities, but widespread opposition to that scheme has now made most governments accept the idea of injection of liquidity in lieu of equity, i.e. through the part-nationalization of financial institutions.

But injection of liquidity, even in this manner, is not enough. Credit will not start flowing simply because banks can access more liquidity. There has to be adequate demand for credit for viable projects by solvent and worthwhile borrowers. And this is not happening. First, the injection of liquidity does not improve the solvency of firms saddled with “toxic” securities, so that the risk associated with lending to them remains prohibitively high. And secondly, quite apart from this, the anticipation of a Depression makes borrowers chary of borrowing and lenders chary of lending.

This anticipation in turn derives from several factors: first, the bursting of one bubble is not necessarily succeeded by the immediate formation of another, so that some recession of a more or less prolonged duration is in any case inevitable. Secondly, the very scale of the current financial crisis is such as to entail an anticipation of a prolonged recession. And thirdly, since the recession has already started, the prospects of crisis-prevention now through the usual monetary instruments (including liquidity injection) appear distinctly dim. The scenario, in which tendencies towards increased liquidity preference on the part of private individuals and institutions and a downward slide in the real economy mutually reinforce one another, has already started unfolding itself and will continue for a prolonged period, unless governments now act to inject demand into the economy directly, apart from injecting liquidity. Until this happens on a large enough scale the Depression will persist.

ZZZZZZZZ….all that is so much mumbo jumbo, right?

I can fix that!  Chuq’s economic law………demand creates jobs; liquidity creates billionaires……see it is that simple!  Let us go back to another theorem…..a theorem that pertains heavily to the jobs debate in Washington…..and since our elected officials are not the sharpest pencils in the box when it comes to economics…..let me make it really, really, really simple for them……..

tax cuts creates liquidity, liquidity creates profitability, profitability creates NO jobs….one more time……PROFITABILITY CREATES NO JOBS!

Without demand there are NO jobs…..without jobs there is NO recovery from a recession…….Very simple……Create Demand, Not Liquidity!

Thus Spake Barack–Part 2

All the prayer have been said and tears shed….and now it is time to return to the problems that are the reality…….a new week….a new jobs speech…..much like the one for the joint session…..

After the original Obama speech I said it was a good speech but that was all the further I would go…..and I said that his proposals were anemic and a waste of time for it would create few, if any jobs,,,,,,,in case you missed my analysis it can be read here…..http://wp.me/pclTd-5b9

So he makes it again….and again it is anemic and a waste of time…….let me explain why I say this….

1 The payroll tax cuts are going to cost more than anything else in the plan, but they will do very little to create jobs.

#2 Obama’s plan to extend unemployment assistance is going to cost about $49 billion but it is not going to do much to create any jobs.

#3 Obama is proposing $50 billion in “immediate” infrastructure spending and $10 billion for a new infrastructure bank that will be dedicated to raising private capital to finance infrastructure projects around the country.

#4 According to the fact sheet on the jobs plan released by the Obama administration, direct financial aid to state governments will prevent up to 280,000 teacher layoffs, and it will also help states retain more police and firefighters.

#5 There are a bunch of other minor things in Obama’s proposal such as “modernizing” public schools and helping more Americans refinance their mortgages, but it is not entirely clear how those things will help create a lot more jobs.

#6 The Obama jobs plan does next to nothing to prevent jobs from being shipped out of the country.

#7 The Obama jobs plan does nothing about the unfair trade practices that are absolutely killing America on the global economic stage.

#8 The Obama jobs plan does nothing about the gigantic mountains of ridiculous regulations that are absolutely killing small business in this country.

#9 The Obama jobs plan does nothing about the negative effects of Obamacare.  Obamacare is going to absolutely slaughter U.S. businesses.  Look, when most other nations do not burden their businesses with providing health care and we force our businesses to comply with the nightmare that Obamacare represents, who do you think has the advantage?

#10 The Obama jobs plan makes our national debt worse.  Yes, Obama insists that his plan will be “100%” paid for, but he has not told us how it will be paid for.

(Once again I thank Michael Synder for all his research and his list….makes life easier for people like me)

Once again you heard about all the jobs…..we heard that it would be paid for……and once again it is an anemic attempt to placate the voices of the unemployed……this sounds good but it will do little to help put our people back to work.

Thus Spake Barack!

Are you ready for some football?  But first, a few words from the President of the United States of America.

Everybody from the President to the House to the Senate to presidential candidates has a plan….a plan to create jobs….those elusive things that is needed to make our economy strong again…..so far ALL ideas revolve around spending cuts and tax cuts…..and I mean ALL….Repub and Dem alike….the same ideas…..but tonight will be different….the Prez will offer a new way of thinking about job creation….just wait and see….

The prediction before the fact was……

President Obama plans tomorrow to unveil a $300 billion jobs strategy that will involve tax relief for workers and spending on public works projects such as road repair and school renovations to put America back to work, according to sources familiar with the plan. Half of the stimulus will come from tax cuts, including a year-long extension of a Social Security payroll tax reduction for workers and a possible cut in payroll taxes paid by employers, according to Bloomberg. The plan also involves the extension of unemployment benefits, offering job training for the unemployed, and a program to prevent teacher layoffs, reports the Los Angeles Times.

And after spake the Prez we have…….the heavens opened up and the healing light from above shown on the country and its people…….(pause)……(sorry, I cannot go on….that was too mushy even for my sarcasm)……..okay, the points leaked and quoted above were very accurate…..

I have been re-reading the speech…..because there is something in it that is disturbing to me…..please read it for yourself……http://tpm.ly/pK5qXo

I do not see these moves that will do much to lower unemployment much…..it is full of tax cuts……..more spending cuts……and then there is the part about helping small business (tomorrow I will explain small business)……he talked anout infrastructure without ever mentioning the term infrastructure……I do not see this as anything but a proposal that will get Repub support….it is just empty in my mind…….

But the part that concerned me the most was Obama’s insistence on the passing of the free trade agreements…..this from his speech…..

“Now it’s time to clear the way for a series of trade agreements that would make it easier for American companies to sell their products in Panama, Colombia and South Korea — while also helping the workers whose jobs have been affected by global competition. If Americans can buy Kias and Hyundais, I want to see folks in South Korea driving Fords and Chevys and Chryslers. I want to see more products sold around the world stamped with three proud words: “Made in America.”

All I can say is to look at what NAFTA did to American jobs……stuff I have read about the Korean agreement would all the South to sell American goods to the North, something that is forbidden by Congress….the ones for Panama would allow corporations to hide money and stuff with extremely difficulty for the US to access the info for prosecutions……Free Trade Agreements in the past have done NOTHING to help American workers….why would labor support them?

Obama sounded forceful……Obama looked determined………Obama looked presidential and strong……but I believe that it was in appearance….ONLY!