All jobs are not created equal. The BLS household survey only asks whether someone is employed or not. People who have a part-time job but would like full-time work are also counted as employed. The BLS says they are “underemployed.”
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Not only are those 65 and over not retiring, they are re-entering the labor force. Continue Reading →
Did the U.S. economy really gain 873,000 jobs in September, 2012? Was the unemployment rate really 7.8%? Economists have reacted to these numbers with a peculiar mixture of disbelief and defensiveness. No sane economist believes these numbers represent the current state of the U.S. economy. A quick-and-dirty estimate says that real GDP would have to grow at a 4 – 5% annual rate to add that many jobs. Actual GDP growth in recent quarters has been below 2.5%. … there’s a good chance that the 873,000 increase in jobs is simply a statistical fluke. Remember, total employment is estimated using a sample of 60,000 households. There is a large margin of error.
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The Great Recession has had dreadful consequences for younger workers. The U.S. is on the verge of losing a generation of young adults who simply cannot find work and have given up looking. Continue Reading →