Posted on 04/06/2014 4:50:29 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A big puzzle looms over the U.S. economy: Friday's jobs report tells us that the unemployment rate has fallen to 6.7% from a peak of 10% at the height of the Great Recession. But at the same time, only 63.2% of Americans 16 or older are participating in the labor force, which, while up a bit in March, is down substantially since 2000. As recently as the late 1990s, the U.S. was a nation in which employment, job creation and labor force participation went hand in hand. That is no longer the case.
What's going on? Think of the labor market as a spring bash you've been throwing with great success for many years. You've sent out the invitations again, but this time the response is much less enthusiastic than at the same point in previous years.
One possibility is that you just need to beat the bushes more, using reminders of past fun as "stimulus" to get people's attention. Another possibility is that interest has shifted away from your big party to other activities.
Economists are sorting out which of these scenarios best explains the slack numbers on labor-force participation—and offers the best hope of reversing them. Is the problem cyclical, so that, if we push for faster growth, workers will come back, as they have in the past with upturns in the business cycle? Or do deeper structural problems in the economy have to be fixed before we can expect any real progress? To the extent that problems are related to retirement or work disincentives that are either hard to change or created by policy, familiar monetary or fiscal policies may have little effect—a point getting too little attention in Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
You cannot grow bacteria in petri dish full of molten lead.
Let me put it this way:
I would love a break down of all the jobs private and public sector created over the last 6 years.
I have the feeling we have a ton of people off the books and also a ton who were put on government employment welfare at high pay on the private sector’s tax dollar.
Obama has dragged us back down to the Carter Presidency.
I know a bunch of women who worked in real estate during the bubble and do not now. They didn’t need the jobs. They liked the money.
“Where Have All the Workers Gone?”
They are on disability.
do deeper structural problems in the economy have to be fixed before we can expect any real progress?
Obama would say YES and so doing destroy any further
progress. Get Government out of the way, and watch this
country soar.
Is there a change in the makeup between government workers and private? I’ll bet the reason this isn’t worse is because the government jobs have expanded. Government jobs which produce no goods or services to enhance value.
I believe the un-employment rate does not include all who are
unemployed but only those receiving Unemployment insurance.There are millions who no longer receive benefits.
This is not a puzzle. The Feds are cooking the book. Simple as that. Also explains why the math no longer works.
I reckon the true unemployment rate is somewhere around 15%, maybe higher.
As taxes go up, the underground economy expands. It’s called the Laffer Curve.
Greece has that going on right now.
70% of the activity is underground.......
Looks like the party is in the wagon. You all pulling the wagon are going to have to do a better job. Slackers.
(/sarcasm)
Well lets see.
If I’m a guy who has worked my ass off for 20 years, my job has been sent off to India or China, and I’m faced with the choice of:
A:) Go to work at a ‘McJob’ for $10 per hour and take orders from some ignorant bastard that’s just barely removed from Puberty, and has an IQ that’s around room temperature.
B:) Sit on my ass at home all day or ‘go fishing’ and collect a check that nets out to about the same dollar amount as option ‘A’.
Which option do you think they will choose?
The people that wrote this article obviously don’t get out of their offices much.
Anyone posted the number of ‘disabled’ in Detroit? That number will rock your socks...
Either way you go with A or B you still are a McMoron!
TANF SNAP SECTION 8 SSDI SSI EITC WICS
OBAMAPHONE GASELECTWATER ASSISTANCE ETC. That’s where they went.
Amazing how the Laffer Curve agrees with Josef who later became vice-prez of ancient Egypt.
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