Category Archives: jobs

Some Economic Data

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Our recovery from the Wuhan Virus situation is moving apace, both medically and economically. Here are some of the economic data. The breakdown by Progressive-Democrat- vs Republican-run States also is interesting. The Executive Summary is this:

…the labor market for lower-income workers is reviving, though it has become increasingly bifurcated between states that reopened sooner and those that maintained longer lockdowns.

Now those data:

  • continuing jobless claims for the week of October 10 declined by nearly one million to 8.37 million, and by 3.6 million in the last three weeks
  • in August the layoff rate hit the lowest on record
  • [i]n July and August, layoffs were fewer than during the same months last year
  • more new restaurants opened in September than in 2018, 2017 and 2016

That last obviously is from the artificially low level driven by the government’s forced closures from the lockdowns, but it still represents significant recovery.

  • [t]hird-quarter median weekly earnings increased 8.2% year-over-year and 9.2% for the bottom 25% of workers
  • [m]edian weekly earnings rose…11.8% for Hispanics and 9.3% for blacks

That’s a significant narrowing of the income (and so wealth) gap that the Left worries so much about.

  • September consumer spending was up 5.4% year-over-year

The over-year period is before the virus situation. That puts the spending rate back on its original track.

  • Atlanta Federal Reserve estimates the economy grew 35.3% in the third quarter

That’s ahead of the official GDP estimate due out on 29 Oct, but it’s a solid presage.

Now some between-State data. September unemployment rates in States that locked down more tightly and stayed locked down longer:

  • 6% in Nevada, 11% in California, 10.5% in Rhode Island, 10.2% in Illinois, 9.7% in New York

Rates for States that reopened sooner from looser restrictions:

  • 7% in Arizona, 6.4% in Georgia, 5.4% in Wisconsin, 5% in Utah

Labor force participation data for a couple of tightly restricted States:

  • 363,000 workers dropped out of New York’s labor force
  • 229,000 workers left New Jersey’s labor force

On the other hand,

  • Arizona’s labor force grew by 151,000
  • Wisconsin’s labor force grew by 82,000

Looks like recovery to me, albeit still fragile.

Labor Rights

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Whose rights are they, anyway?

Last Thursday, a California First Appellate District court upheld a State district court’s order that Uber and Lyft must reclassify their gig drivers as actual employees and so must add to their labor costs with benefits, paid leave of various sorts, payroll taxes, and so on. Never mind that this will reduce gig-oriented companies’ ability to recover from the State’s Wuhan Virus-related lockdowns and cost thousands of Californians access to additional income.

The time is fast approaching when it’ll be most useful for Uber, Lyft, and other gig-oriented businesses to leave California altogether.

It gets worse. As Uber noted in part,

…rideshare drivers will be prevented from continuing to work as independent contractors….

Indeed. The California court’s order (and AB5, the State statute that originally levied the classification requirement) go far beyond restricting gig-oriented businesses.

They’re attacks on gig workers themselves by denying them control over their own labor and the price and other parameters under which they’re willing to market their labor. The ruling and the statute convert those who wish to work in California into labor wards of the State’s government.

Almost like they’re State plantation laborers. But it’s all good, though; it’s for the workers’ own good.

The court’s opinion can be read here.

Some Jobs Data

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…from Stephen Moore via his Fox News op-ed. They compare the job creation performance of ex-President Barack Obama’s (D) and then-Vice President and current Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s eight-year administration with the three years of performance of President Donald Trump’s administration prior to the current Wuhan Virus situation.

Manufacturing
Obama: -192,000—that’s jobs lost
Trump: 475,000—that’s jobs gained

Mining
Obama: -112,000
Trump: 63,000

Construction
Obama: 280,000
Trump: 746,000

Biden wants to “help” this growth along by dumping $4 trillion of new taxes and rescinded current tax cuts on our economy, on our jobs engine.

Biden wants to potentiate his tax “help” with vast new regulation.

Biden wants to add further to his “help” program by trashing our economy’s ability to generate reliable and cheap energy and replacing that sector with the Green New Deal that the new center left of his Party insists on emplacing.

Our economy can’t afford Biden’s help.

The Biden Tax Plan

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…will be a disaster for our economy.  Here are some examples of the damage Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s tax plan will inflict.

Earnings reductions are directly translatable into jobs reductions—higher unemployment.

And this bit of cynicism from “a campaign employee” that’s all too typical of Biden himself:

There is no reason that an economic plan that asks everyone to pay their fair share while doing more to reach full-employment quicker with more jobs and stronger growth should not help everyone from essential workers to investors.

Notice that: the campaign, along with Biden and his—I am the Democratic Party—Party, steadfastly refuse to say what their fair share is, besides more.

Some Prosperity Data

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Courtesy of the Census Bureau, via Just the News and The Wall Street Journal. These data concern the last year.

  • median household income rose to more than $68,700 just over the last year, a 6.8% year-on-year rise
  • black median household income rose to $66,500—up 7.9%
  • Hispanic median household income rose to $56,100—up 7.1%
  • women median income rose to $47,300—up 3%
  • poverty rate fell to 10.5%
  • child poverty rate fell to 14.1%

These are all highs (or lows) over the last several decades, and the sizes of the changes are historically large, also.

Over the last three-ish years, median household income has increased by 9%. That’s associated with a decrease in income inequality, including a small decrease in the share of income held by the top 20% over the same period paired with a bottom quintile increase of 2.4%.

Notice how all of this coincides with the pre-Wuhan Virus situation unemployment rates—at historic lows for our general population and for blacks and Hispanics in particular—along with rising labor force participation rate, which remains low, but it’s climbing from the historic lows achieved during the prior administration’s eight years.

One major factor little commented on in the NLMSM is the effect on prosperity and income inequality of folks in the bottom quintile actually having a job and an income—especially minority folks.

Which administration is it, again, that’s been in charge?