Post by Logan on Mar 5, 2016 9:41:31 GMT -6
Jobs Report Screws Up Purity Left Talking Points About How the Obama Recovery Sucks
This morning's jobs report was pretty good. 242,000 jobs were added, outstripping expectations, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.9% (the lowest in eight years), and numbers from December and January were revised up.
But a number missing from media reports is the real big story here: between 2012 and 2015, incomes grew at a higher rate than inflation, and people at the bottom of the economic ladder benefited the most. Data shows that real income (i.e. adjusted for inflation) of income earners at the 10th percentile (i.e. workers who make less than 90% of the country) grew the most, by 1.3%, and the incomes of the top 10% grew the least, by 0.2%.
Sure, one-and-a-half percent is not much in the way of income growth, but it damn well is a step in the right direction both coming from a near-depression a little over a half a decade ago, and towards addressing income inequality.
The other big number that is hiding out is the measure that includes labor underutilization - i.e. people who are working part time because they cannot find full time work - known as U6, dropped 0.2 points to 9.7% in February, just a half point above pre-Great Recession average. In total, part time work for economic reason now accounts for 3.7% of the labor force, dropping a full 2 points from recession high. Even more impressive, the percentage of the workforce who have been unemployed (and looking for work) for more than 6 months - the long term unemployed - has dropped from 3.6% to 1.3%, nearly even with its pre-recession average.
Read more: www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2016/3/4/feb-2016-jobs-report-income-growth
This morning's jobs report was pretty good. 242,000 jobs were added, outstripping expectations, the unemployment rate held steady at 4.9% (the lowest in eight years), and numbers from December and January were revised up.
But a number missing from media reports is the real big story here: between 2012 and 2015, incomes grew at a higher rate than inflation, and people at the bottom of the economic ladder benefited the most. Data shows that real income (i.e. adjusted for inflation) of income earners at the 10th percentile (i.e. workers who make less than 90% of the country) grew the most, by 1.3%, and the incomes of the top 10% grew the least, by 0.2%.
Sure, one-and-a-half percent is not much in the way of income growth, but it damn well is a step in the right direction both coming from a near-depression a little over a half a decade ago, and towards addressing income inequality.
The other big number that is hiding out is the measure that includes labor underutilization - i.e. people who are working part time because they cannot find full time work - known as U6, dropped 0.2 points to 9.7% in February, just a half point above pre-Great Recession average. In total, part time work for economic reason now accounts for 3.7% of the labor force, dropping a full 2 points from recession high. Even more impressive, the percentage of the workforce who have been unemployed (and looking for work) for more than 6 months - the long term unemployed - has dropped from 3.6% to 1.3%, nearly even with its pre-recession average.
Read more: www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2016/3/4/feb-2016-jobs-report-income-growth