Posted on 11/26/2023 6:47:30 PM PST by george76
19 months in a row! The Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 19 months in a row. When something happens for 19 consecutive months, that is definitely a trend. The economy is clearly in big trouble, and conditions are getting worse with each passing day.
But the mainstream media continues to insist that the economy is doing just great. They tell us that inflation is low, but if it was still measured the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation would be well into double digit territory. And they tell us that the unemployment rate is low, but if honest numbers were being used the official rate of unemployment would be about 25 percent right now. There are highly qualified people that can’t even get an interview even though they are sending out hundreds and hundreds of resumes. What are they doing wrong?
Of course the truth is that they aren’t doing anything wrong. The employment market is far tighter than we are being led to believe, and that isn’t going to change any time soon.
When a working age American is not working, the government puts that individual into one of two categories.
Right now, there are only 6.5 million U.S. adults that are officially considered to be “unemployed”.
But another 99.9 million U.S. adults are considered to be “not in the labor force”. So they don’t count as being “unemployed”.
When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of 106.4 million U.S. adults that do not have a job right now.
At no point during the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009 did that number even reach 90 million.
So don’t let anyone convince you that unemployment is low.
The elite are trying to do their best to convince us that everything is just fine, but meanwhile the Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators has now fallen for 19 months in a row…
A key measure of the direction of the U.S. economy fell for the 19th straight month and once again indicated that a recession is looming.
The leading economic index fell 0.8 percent in October, the Conference Board said Monday. The LEI is based on 10 indicators that tend to forecast the direction of the economy.
Economists had expected a milder decline of 0.8 percent.
The last time the index declined for 19 months in a row was during the Great Recession when it fell from the end of 2007 through 2009.
The last streak of this magnitude started in 2007.
But we didn’t have a recession in 2007.
And things still seemed relatively fine in early 2008 too.
Of course then we got to the end of 2008 and everything fell to pieces.
That is why they are called “leading” economic indicators.
They tell us what is coming.
And what is coming in our time is not going to be fun.
Needless to say, most of the population is not prepared at all for a major economic storm.
Survey after survey has shown that most of the U.S. population is currently living paycheck to paycheck…
The majority of U.S. adults are living paycheck to paycheck heading into this holiday season, a report shows.
LendingClub’s latest report shows that as of October, 60 percent of adults said they are living paycheck to paycheck. Around 40 percent of consumers consider themselves to be worse off now than in 2022.
Even higher earners are struggling to get by, with 42 percent of those making six figures also living check-to-check under President Joe Biden.
According to a separate CNBC survey, the number of adults struggling to save between checks is up from 58 percent in March.
As long as those paychecks keep coming in, they can keep scraping by from month to month.
But now layoffs are starting to surge again all over the nation.
Young Americans are in particularly dire straits.
Millions upon millions of young Americans have low paying jobs and are deeply struggling with student loan debt, and this is one of the reasons why the average age of a U.S. homebuyer just keeps going higher and higher…
The average American homebuyer is now 49-years-old – 18 years older than in 1981 – as inflation, college costs and house prices make it harder for young people to get a foot on the ladder.
Research by the National Association of Realtors has revealed that the median age of all homebuyers has steadily crept up over the past forty years.
The most shocking contrast is for first time buyers where the median age is now 35, up from 31 in 2013 and 29 in 1981.
The American Dream is now out of reach for most of the nation, and that is especially true among those that are under the age of 40.
But the mainstream media absolutely refuses to acknowledge the truth.
They just keep telling us that things look great for the U.S. economy in 2024 and beyond. The following comes from a Yahoo Finance article entitled “The election year economy looks good for Biden”…
The much-predicted recession still hasn’t arrived. Will it materialize in 2024, at the worst possible moment for President Joe Biden, as he’s trying to convince voters to give him a second term?
It’s not looking that way. As economists roll out their forecasts for 2024, the prevailing theme is moderation: slowing but still-positive economic growth, a declining rate of inflation, and continued low unemployment.
Seriously?
Come on man.
Do they actually expect us to consume that pablum?
We are already in an economic crisis right now, and things are going to get so much worse during the years ahead.
You can stick your head in the sand and pretend that everything is okay if you want.
But nothing is going to change the fact that the “endgame” has arrived.
Decades of very foolish decisions have brought us to this stage, and now we are truly going to reap what we have sown.
How many of those millions are stay at home moms? They have plenty of work and thank God for them!
106 million adults aren’t looking for a job because they are given freebies by those of us who do work.
FU JB!
But our unemployment rate is only about 3%!
I wonder how that 106 million manage to eat, pay their rent, their utilities, their iphones, own a car,...
Sky high unemployment and millions of invaders. What could go wrong?
Excellent question.
There doesn’t appear to be much need for employees.
Other than government services, I don’t see any big growth sectors.
My guess is government will continue to grow, continuingly at the cost of everything else.
Many are retired like me who did their time. Still — the total number seems awfully high for a society.
With proper socialist benefits and regular government checks coming in the workforce does not have to be actively working if people don’t feel in the mood.
RE: 106.4 Million U.S. Adults Do Not Have A Job Right Now
OK first question, how many of these 106.4 million are:
1) College Students;
2) Retired?
My wife is one of them. She has no "job" but she has plenty of work on her plate.
Of course, the federal government would much rather she puts the kids into day care so that she can contribute her "fair share" of income tax.
Yeah me too (or me 250 millionth asking this same thing).
I’m retired, too. But the 100 million are working age adults.
I have put in resumes every week for the last two months...not one call back. Not 1.
In the United States there are ~58 million people over age 65, and another 42 million that have a disability.
I believe one of the ‘qualifiers’ in the article mentioned something about “working age.”
I also believe there is a pretty big working force in the form of illegals - what our government lovingly calls ‘migrants.’
Contractors, usually American born, are the front men for getting the work (house painting, repairs, siding, roofing, etc.) and they have crews who work for them as subcontractors and all they do is issue 1099s. Government is happy and doesn’t really check into it much, and the front man contractor has his bases covered.
Biden
Working age adults are defined as age 18 to 64. I retired at 61, and I suspect there are many more like me. I didn’t have to work any more, so I stopped.
And how many people are in college or grad school full-time? According to some random web site, 17 million.
Then there are the nearly 4 million guys in jail. Their employment prospects may be poor when they get out, but right now they can’t get a job at all.
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