Bob Mercer notes the latest economic metrics from the Bureau of Finance and Management. They’re all bad.
Job openings advertised online across South Dakota have dropped from around 19,000 right before we got serious about coronavirus in March to around 13,000, with two thirds of that drop happening last week [all graphics from Bureau of Finance and Management, “COVID-19 Weekly Economic Metrics,” posted 2020.04.28]:
Online job listings stayed steady in Sioux Falls through March 26 but have dropped about 33% since.
Online job listings in Rapid City held steady with a few bumps upward through April 2 but then dropped 30% from their pre-coronavirus level:
Before the pandemic, statewide online job listings outnumbered continuing claims for unemployment insurance by more than seven to one. Now there are 1.5 people claiming unemployment for every one job listed online. If we could fill every listed job with someone taking an unemployment check in South Dakota, there’d still be nearly 7,000 people still looking for work.
We’re driving 35% less around town and 42% less out on the Interstates:
Less travel means less travel spending… a crap-ton less. Over the last four reported weeks, travel spending has been down 70% to 89% from last year. So if you were running a typical tourist stop and made $10,000 during the week of April 18 in 2019, you probably made only $1,100 in this year’s mid-April.
Video lottery enjoyed a slight resurgence, with its weekly year-vs.-year drop improving from –55.0% to –43.5%:
All those drops in economic activity may give Governor Kristi Noem some cover for her refusal to enforce her pandemic response suggestions. Even if she believed in government taking action to protect workers, the state might not have the cash to pay its cops and public health workers.
US weekly jobless claims hit 3.84 million, topping 30 million over the last 6 weeks (CNBC)
How much of this could have been averted in Trump would have been honest with the people and prepared this country.
Trump should have had the government order massive quantities of things like face masks, gloves, disinfecting product and sanitizers back in January to have the country prepared. If these items were not needed, it is not like they would have gone to waste. These are items that are needed in about every type of national and international emergency.
Most hospital in SD would probably be doing some elective surgeries and not have had to lay of staff if they were not scared of being short of PPE.
I hope people come to understand that Trump totally failed again and continues to fail this country.
The PPE boogeyman is dead. Elective surgeries are not being done because the fatcat administrators don’t want them being done. This will drive the price through the roof when they start slowly doing them and they all can work less and get paid more. Everybody and their dog has a sock strapped to their face. And nobody is going hungry except people who were already going hungry before the covids crawled into them.
Mr. Trump is insaner than most and has a very weak mind, but his failing is not having the governments order lots of rubber gloves. No, his failing is in the brain thinking he cannot do.
Scott, it’s not that simple, but, yes, Trump failed and continues to fail.
Elective surgeries aren’t being done to free up space, equipment and personnel, and to better protect people. Part of that is because of Trump’s failure to take this seriously early enough. He’s now maing the mistake of thinking it’s close to being over.
My neighbor is a nurse in the kidney transplant unit. His unit has been restricted to only the sickest or those with rare tissue/blood requirements, if a kidney shows up that matches. Kidney transplant patients are placed on medications that repress their immune responses, so being around a highly infectious disease is not a wise idea. It’s true that kidney transplants are not big moneymakers. Lots of these folks are impoverished. Hospitals are not making money on COVID, either. Hospitals are furloughing people because they aren’t needed, as well. Those furloughs will show up in the statistics next week or the week after. My neighbor is lucky. He’s cross-training in the Emergency Room.
4 more South Dakota deaths due to covid, but good news, the Meatpackers are gonna open so we can surely expect more death and more cases. That will mean that there will be openings for workers in the Sioux Falls plant and in Aberdeen. When one line falls, the new guys will be able to step in and fill the voids. What happens when we run out of brown and black guys? That will mean white boys are gonna have to step up…or else fix the damn thing. Slow that line down, put more space between workers and have less of them. Pay them more wages and put safety gear on those workers. If this is so critical, act like it and take care of it.
“SIOUX FALLS | Big meatpacking companies that have struggled to keep plants running during the coronavirus crisis said Wednesday they welcomed President Trump’s executive order requiring them to stay open, but unions, some employees and Democrats questioned whether workers could be kept safe.
Trump used the Defense Production Act to classify meat processors as critical infrastructure to prevent supermarket shelves from running out of chicken, pork, beef and other meat.”
The Roger Cornelius Memorial Cartoon by Marty Two Bulls
is.gd/rW03N9
For some reason I’m thinking of Sinclair Lewis’s book, “The Jungle.” Anyone else?
The current focus of the racist GOP is immunizing JBS and other businesses from liability for the dead workers they were and will continue to fail to protect.
Yep, The Jungle.
Rachel Maddow blisters KS, NE, & IA tonight. Of local concern, Dakota County, NE has that state’s 2d highest infection rate. Bet your silver dollar those infections are now in Union County and Sioux City, IA.
— For a wider view, the 30,000 foot view, reflect on Neil Howe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9FT1ObIYLc
Howe and Strauss wrote Generations, the History of America’s Future and then, The Fourth Turning. These are clear theories of general guidelines to our future, the generalized choices we have to make to achieve a future in a democracy. They should be required high school reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory
Another country’s solidarity, is amazing. We Americans are to weak to endure what it takes to rid ourselves of this plague. It may well be that the rest of the world will see us as more of a danger than anything else. It would be amazing for them to not allow us to travel there or not allow their citizens to travel here. Check this entertainment offering for those that are in lockdown https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-52443601/coronavirus-madrid-s-balcony-cinema-screens-films-for-people-in-lockdown
Spain, like Italy, the UK and the rest of the current European Union teach us the same lessons that China has shown.
Jerry, great example of community spirit from Spain.
Scott, the economy had to be shut down at some point, but sooner would have been better. Alas, we just aren’t programmed to respond to problems until they are right in front of us.