ECONOMY BEATS EXPECTATIONS ON QUANTITY … BUT WHITHER QUALITY?
The U.S. economy created 175,000 jobs in February, according to the federal government’s data – a print that beat industry expectations (as well as a private sector payroll figure released earlier in the week).
Still, labor participation remained stuck at 63 percent – meaning the size of the American workforce continues to hover at three-decade lows. Also the low quality of the newly created positions has resulted in contracting income levels – offering little in the way of upward mobility to the so-called “recovery.”
“Five years into the ‘recovery,’ weekly earnings growth is the lowest it has been in five years!” the website Zero Hedge notes.
How low? Average weekly income for all workers is currently $831.40 – or 1.3 percent higher than it was this time a year ago. For production and supervisory workers the weekly average is $682.65 – just one percent higher than a year ago.
“When wage growth is at 1 (percent), or half of the Fed’s inflation target, you will not get any sustained economic recovery,” Zero Hedge explains.
Exactly …
Officially, the unemployment rate climbed from 6.6 percent to 6.7 percent – although that number has become effectively meaningless given that roughly 90 million working age Americans (almost a third of the country) are not counted as part of the labor force.
8 comments
If only we could get some *serious* bad news – like 36 hours to bailout or watch America go up in flames.
Baby boomers retiring, labor participation rate going down… Tides go in, tides go out… You can’t explain that!
I was about to ask the question, “How does the massive retirement of Baby-boomers figure into the labor participation rate?”
We have known since the mid 70’s this was coming.
Must be because of the government run government.
The nation should follow the teapublicans so the rest of the nation can be like the land of milk and honey that 25 years of republican rule has made South Carolina.
Why has the South Carolina Dept of LLR stopped checking employers doing business in the state for violations of our illegal alien laws? There are 3 contractors at the construction site of the new USC Darla Moore School of Business that are using illegal aliens to do their work. They circumvent the law by hiring individual illegal aliens as sub contractors. In other words, each illegal is listed as a sub and issued a 1099.
On top of that the crooked contractors get out of their half of the social security tax, with hold NO federal and state tax.
Now, how much you want to bet that the ILLEGAL is not filing income tax.
Enforce the federal law that has been on the books since 1947, IMPRISON the employer!
Of course if you check you will find that the state of South Carolina gives Small Business seminars advocating this type of practice.
Of course you could call NIMRATA and tell her there were UNION construction workers on site, I am sure she would be all over that!
We’re sick economically until Obama leaves the White House. We may be able to make some improvement, if we can get the Senate, and fight Obama, in Nov.
But no matter the excuses, number manipulating or spin…the problem persists, as long as Obama has be been in office. And the lethargy will continue until he’s gone. No way to dispute that…You’re not very smart if you believe otherwise.
http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/266290/slide_266290_1813720_free.gif?1354114715790