Is the job market and the USA economy good?

[Vambram]

'I am losing my mind': Behind the rosy job numbers, Americans are struggling to find work

Job growth has been strong despite high inflation and interest rates. But beneath the surface, hiring has slowed and workers worry about unemployment.

www.usatoday.com

Hey Joe Biden, looks like Bidenomics ain't nearly as good as you and the rest of the ruling elitist class wants us Americans to believe!!

 

[Fantine]

I'm in my seventies. When I was in my twenties, a newly married homeowner and Mom, we went through the worst inflation in 50 years. Inflation was about 15% a year. Mortgage rates were about 16% (fortunately we'd bought a home when they were only 8%.)

Younger people have never experienced real inflation as we did, but we rode through this inflationary period cautiously but optimistically, realizing that one year of inflation wasn't the worst thing in the world and that things would calm down under the steady leadership of Biden and the Fed.

Being retired, of course, we received cost of living increases in Social Security and my husband's veterans' benefits, so our experience of inflation was different from younger people's, but our three children survived and thrived despite the difficulties.

My middle child was a business owner and teacher (with the bulk of his income coming from the business). The Trump pandemic years were much more difficult for him because if you are a partner in a bar/entertainment venue business is depressed for quite awhile...but since the end of the pandemic they actually bought a second business.

Their business was just breaking even during the pandemic, but they were helped during the recovery because weaker competitors went under.

He is in his 40's. He and his partners were flexible, open to new opportunities, prudent, and careful. When they bought the second business they did much of the renovations themselves.

If you want to live into your seventies and beyond, those are the qualities you need to thrive.

 

[NxNW]

Hey Joe Biden, looks like Bidenomics ain't nearly as good as you and the rest of the ruling elitist class wants us Americans to believe!!

What do the numbers say?

 

[essentialsaltes]

How has "hiring slowed", when the February jobs number was bigger than January's?

 

[eleos1954]

'I am losing my mind': Behind the rosy job numbers, Americans are struggling to find work

Job growth has been strong despite high inflation and interest rates. But beneath the surface, hiring has slowed and workers worry about unemployment.

www.usatoday.com

Hey Joe Biden, looks like Bidenomics ain't nearly as good as you and the rest of the ruling elitist class wants us Americans to believe!!

On a personal level it takes me about $400/month more to live .... and increases a little bit every month. The increase in my cost of living started right after the Biden Administration took over.

 

[Vambram]

How has "hiring slowed", when the February jobs number was bigger than January's?

Please read that entire article for more details which I think will answer your question.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Please read that entire article for more details which I think will answer your question.

It really didn't.

From your article: The hiring slowdown is difficult to discern from the monthly jobs report. Besides the 275,000 jobs added in February, which followed 229,000 in January, job gains averaged a sturdy 255,000 average in 2023

How Trump’s three years of job gains compares to Obama’s [His first three years chosen, because this is pre-pandemic]​

The average monthly gain so far under Trump is 182,000 jobs.

--

So this current 'slowing' as the February number beats January, and also beats the average for all of 2023. And beats all of the 'good' years of Trump's presidency.

 

[hislegacy]

I'm in my seventies. When I was in my twenties, a newly married homeowner and Mom, we went through the worst inflation in 50 years. Inflation was about 15% a year. Mortgage rates were about 16% (fortunately we'd bought a home when they were only 8%.)

I remember the Carter years - I've not voted Democrat since.

 

[NxNW]

On a personal level it takes me about $400/month more to live .... and increases a little bit every month. The increase in my cost of living started right after the Biden Administration took over.

We call that supply & demand.

 

[NxNW]

Please read that entire article for more details which I think will answer your question.

The article contained no such details, only anecdotes.

 

[Mayzoo]

I just changed jobs recently because where I was at was not keeping up with current wages. I received a better than 50% increase in pay for my effort and an almost identical job. Wages have increased in most fields from what I can tell (most fast food jobs are paying upwards of 17.00 an hour and I am in a 7.25 minimum wage state), so if your employer is not keeping up with current wages, and will not offer compensation raises to keep you, look for another job. It took me about 6 months of hard looking (while I was still employed of course), but it was worth it.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

'I am losing my mind': Behind the rosy job numbers, Americans are struggling to find work

Job growth has been strong despite high inflation and interest rates. But beneath the surface, hiring has slowed and workers worry about unemployment.

www.usatoday.com

Hey Joe Biden, looks like Bidenomics ain't nearly as good as you and the rest of the ruling elitist class wants us Americans to believe!!

It's going to be ok because .... because .... it's ok not to be able to find employment due to the invasion of technology within and into the job market.

We'll all be ok, though since the answer is simple: be the best A.I. expert around and you'll be employed. Until you're not.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

The article contained no such details, only anecdotes.

That is all that is needed in some circles to persuade public opinion. No need for facts. They distract from what we feel.

 

[Vambram]

The article contained no such details, only anecdotes.

Companies are warier about hiring amid high interest rates and wages. Workers are vying with more job candidates for fewer openings, forcing them to send in more applications. And a large share of employees are jittery about getting laid off.

“Hiring is slowing across the board,” says Brad Hershbein, senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Although net employment growth in the jobs report has been strong, much of the gains can be traced to fewer layoffs, Hershbein says.
Companies such as Amazon, Google, Citigroup and UPS have announced thousands of layoffs recently, but initial jobless claims, a broad gauge of job cuts, remain historically low. After grappling with COVID-19-related labor shortages, firms have been reluctant to let workers go.
But bumps in employment gains from fewer people leaving jobs can last only so long, economists say. Hiring needs to pick up to sustain payroll growth.

 

[Vambram]

In January, employers posted 8.9 million job openings, down slightly from the previous month and a peak of 12 million in March 2022, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The number of new hires dropped to 5.7 million, below the pre-COVID level. And just 3.4 million workers quit jobs, the fewest since January 2021 and a sign that workers don’t have another position lined up or are less confident they can land one.

In the same month, a barometer of small business hiring intentions fell to the lowest level since the depths of the pandemic in 2020, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.

“If you’re not sure business is going to be there six months, is it better to have your existing employees work harder than spend money (to add workers) and then lay them off in six months?” asks Tom Gimbel, CEO of LaSalle Network, a Chicago-based staffing agency.

 

[Fantine]

So you are disputing the strong labor market with a few quotes from HR people speculating what "might" happen in the future?

I'm not impressed.

None of us knows what challenges might come. That is why we need a president who supports workers and labor unions. And protects Social Security for the elderly and disabled.

A president who is not impulsive and uninformed. Yet another reason to vote against Trump.

 

[BCP1928]

So you are disputing the strong labor market with a few quotes from HR people speculating what "might" happen in the future?

I'm not impressed.

None of us knows what challenges might come. That is why we need a president who supports workers and labor unions. And protects Social Security for the elderly and disabled.

A president who is not impulsive and uninformed. Yet another reason to vote against Trump.

No doubt. But the Democrats are not doing all that good a job of being a labor party any more since they got suckered into the culture war.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

In January, employers posted 8.9 million job openings, down slightly from the previous month and a peak of 12 million in March 2022, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The number of new hires dropped to 5.7 million, below the pre-COVID level. And just 3.4 million workers quit jobs, the fewest since January 2021 and a sign that workers don’t have another position lined up or are less confident they can land one.

In the same month, a barometer of small business hiring intentions fell to the lowest level since the depths of the pandemic in 2020, according to the National Federation of Independent Business.

“If you’re not sure business is going to be there six months, is it better to have your existing employees work harder than spend money (to add workers) and then lay them off in six months?” asks Tom Gimbel, CEO of LaSalle Network, a Chicago-based staffing agency.

Personally, I'm just about sick over the repeated headlines regurgitating ambiguous stats about "job growth." After a while, the repetition of obscurantist, yellow-style journalism will become more telling when shanty towns spring up and food lines begin to develop. At that point, reports of numbers and stats won't mean much any more ... but who knows? Maybe A.I. will have "the New Way" all figured out before that happens.

 

[BCP1928]

Personally, I'm just about sick over the repeated headlines regurgitating ambiguous stats about "job growth." After a while, the repetition of obscurantist, yellow-style journalism will become more telling when shanty towns spring up and food lines begin to develop. At that point, reports of numbers and stats won't mean much any more ... but who knows? Maybe A.I. will have "the New Way" all figured out before that happens.

The working class has to reject the obsession with each others sex lives and other extraneous issue that has been forced on them and reunite as a political entity.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

The working class has to reject the obsession with each others sex lives and other extraneous issue that has been forced on them and reunite as a political entity.

The problem is, the U.S. has never been United on anything other than on paper. You know that. I know that. We know that. They know that.