Wages drop, only 5th time in 33 years

Washington Examiner ^ | July 2, 2012 | Paul Bedard

[gusopol3]

Unemployment ebbs and flows, but one measure of the nation's economic health, average weekly wages, rarely dips.

Until now. In the latest demonstration of the struggling economy that threatens President Obama's reelection, average weekly wages fell in 2011, one of only five declines since the category was created in 1978 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In a just-released review of employment in the nation's largest 322 counties, BLS found that weekly wages dropped over the year by 1.7 percent to $955 in the fourth quarter of 2011 from a high of $971 in the fourth quarter of 2010.

That means the $50,000-a-year mark, busted in the fourth quarter of 2010, has dropped back to an average yearly salary of $49,660. And the wage depression was widespread: 282 major counties suffered wage declines; just 36 saw increases.

[gusopol3]

I respect that, but it’s hard for one person to compare his ability to participate as a consumer in the economy from decade to decade, let alone over several decades. But a single voter can compare his progress from year to year or even a few years, which was why Reagan’s questuion , “are you better off than you were 4 years “ago worked. The answer for Obama is emphatically no.

[hoosiermama]

‘TAXATION WITH MISREPRESENTATION” a great tagline, bumper sticker etc.

[gusopol3]

I’d always understood it was Henry Ford who wanted his workers to make enough money to buy the cars they made. Every coin still has the answer stamped on it in this great country, “In God We Trust.” Without that unifying principle, there are indeed rough times ahead.

[gusopol3]

Considering how well the original worked, it has to be a winner.

[xzins]

Amen, Gus.

In God we Trust.

[kabar]

You are talking politics. I am talking about a very disturbing trend that means our standard of living is in decline regardless of who is in office. The average wage of a male who has not graduated high school has declined 66% in real wages since 1969.

We are bringing in 1.2 million legal immigrants every year. 25% of the adults lack even a high school diploma. It expains partially why our wages are declining. We are bringing in 125,000 legal foreign workers a month right now. This includes permanent immigrants and those on temporary work visas. And now Obama is giving an amnesty to over a million illegal aliens up to the age of 30.

[gusopol3]

I am talking politics, but I do recognize and lament the long term trend . Personally, I attribute it to demographic inversion. Those guys back in the fifties knew they had 4 kids to raise at home. From my personal experience, there is no greater motivator. To the extent our society moves away from that, it’s going to be increasingly difficult for politics to fix. Likely, the more they try , the worse it will get.

[kabar]

Personally, I attribute it to demographic inversion. Those guys back in the fifties knew they had 4 kids to raise at home. From my personal experience, there is no greater motivator.

If you take the time to read the article, you will learn something. Our middle class jobs are disappearing, most of them going overseas where labor is cheaper and just as qualified. Wages are being depressed because of an oversupply of labor. Education will be key to whatever success one has in the future and it will have to be specialized.

And the demographics of this country are changing rapidly. 87 percent of the 1.2 million legal immigrants entering annually are minorities as defined by the U.S. Government and almost all of the illegal aliens are minorities. By 2019 half of the children 18 and under in the U.S. will be classified as minorities and by 2042, half of the residents of this country will be minorities. Generally, immigrants and minorities vote predominantly for the Democrat Party. Hence, Democrats view immigration as a never-ending source of voters that will make them the permanent majority party.

What makes this disturbing is that the out of wedlock birth rates for the fastest growing part of our population--blacks and Hispanics--is 71% and 50% respectively. And the school drop out rate is over 50% for Hispanics and about the same for blacks. This is the pathology for failure in our society and greater dependence upon government. They represent our future workforce, which will make it even more difficult for us to compete in the global economy.

I don't care who the next President is. We are in serious trouble and it will be very difficult to turn around these trends, especially since we are bankrupt.

[gusopol3]

Thanks, I’ll read it.

[zeestephen]

Re: “Wages Drop”

Yeah, I guess so.

11 million illegal immigrants - most of them low skill.

1 million new citizens each year - most of them low skill.

500,000 Green Cards and work visas each year - many of them low skill - ALL of them competing against home grown Americans.

[kabar]

500,000 Green Cards and work visas each year - many of them low skill - ALL of them competing against home grown Americans.

Double that. 125,000 brand new foreign workers with work permits each month -- HERE'S THE PROOF

Debt Debate Over; Time for Congress to Lower Immigration and Create Jobs for Unemployed Americans

[zeestephen]

I believe your number may not include workers who leave the USA workforce when their visas expire.

Many people at Free Republic support high levels of immigration - but not me.

They often challenge my numbers as being too high.

So, I use the most conservative numbers I can find.

[gusopol3]

There are entire swaths of the economy in great need of skilled workers, I’m astonished that they can write this report with no reference to that simple fact.http://www.careersinwelding.com/salary_information.php Weber’s original insight into the Protestant work ethic was that it stood in contradistinction to the traditional economic performance of individuals, where , once a comfortable level of creature comfort was attained, the marginal utility of work dropped off sharply. I have only very superficial understanding of that, but it fits the data as far as I’m concerned. Maybe it’s just too hard and dirty to be a welder? When you know you’re not going to starve, plenty of women are around who’ll give sex for not much other than the mutual pleasure and there’s plenty of entertainment to while away the hours?

[kabar]

These figures as explained by Roy Beck, NumbersUSA, are new work permits issued annually and then divided by 12 to give the monthly figure. About 400,000 are adult green card holders, i.e., legal permanent residents.

Here is a video of Roy explaining how the numbers are arrived at

[kabar]

Many of these jobs are being taken by immigrants, legal and illegal. And there is an endless supply of them. There are about 23 million immigrants in the workforce, 8 million of them illegal aliens.

Job Growth. The finding that new immigration was higher in the 10 years prior to 2010 than in the 10 years prior to 2000 is important because the two decades were very different in terms of job growth. There were two significant recessions during the first decade of this century plus the September 11 terrorist attacks. As Figure 3 shows, during the decade there was actually a net loss of about 400,000 jobs according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey of businesses. In contrast, the BLS reports a net increase in jobs of about 22 million between 1990 and 2000.

If we had a real shortage of workers, wages would be increasing, not decreasing. I don't care if they are welders or garbagemen. US businesses want the flow of cheap, exploitable labor to continue so they can increase profits and socialize the costs.

[hoosiermama]

Got the Bible out after church on Sunday...reading about judges decisions. Where would Christians be if the “judge” had told Jesus: “you just go on home, they’ve got nothing on you”?
Learned along time ago my prayers don’t always get answered in the way and in the time I’ve asked. God sometimes has a better plan. w

[zeestephen]

Yes, I agree.

What I'm saying is that work visas are temporary.

Each month a certain number of visas also EXPIRE - those workers leave the USA.

Just counting NEW visas does not give us an accurate number.

You must also subtract those who leave.

There are two basic problems when trying to do immigration math.

(1) Quite often people who are eligible to stay in the USA voluntarily leave.
(2) Quite often people in one category move to another category. For instance, a man arrives here with an H-1b Visa, then moves on to a Green Card in a few years, then moves on to Citizenship a few years after that.

Trying to keep the math completely honest is REALLY hard, which is why I always reach for the most conservative numbers.

Frankly, even the conservative numbers are awful!

[12chachacha]

We need some strategery

[Rome2000]

Whats the Bishop from KOLOB going to do about the Federal Workers wages, which have skyrocketed?.

Nothing, that's what he's going to do.

They even pay themselves bonuses from the money they extort from taxpayers.

It's pretty rich seeing people post that all we need to do to starve the federal beast is vote in more Republicans.

They haven't done a goddamned thing to shrink government when they were in control.

That's a fact.

[gusopol3]

Yeah, patronage has been a problem with government forever and now with early retirement and taxpayer funded pensions and the incestuous campaign contributions, it’s on steroids.