America added 850,000 new jobs last month, the best gain in ten months and, like many other data points amidst the coronavirus pandemic, a historically astounding figure: pre-pandemic, from 2011 through 2019, the average number of new jobs in June was around 205,000.
We lost 22.36 million jobs when the pandemic hit in March and April 2020; even with 850,000 new jobs last month, the U.S. still has to create another 6.76 million jobs—that would be eight more gang-booster months like June—to get back to pre-pandemic employment numbers.
The unemployment rate still increased in June from 5.8% to 5.9%. That difference appears to come from the fact that while 850,000 Americans took new jobs, 942,000 Americans decided June was a good time to leave their previous jobs and seek new opportunities. (Celebrate Independence Day with independence from your old job—I suppose that could be fun for a weekend!)
That uptick in departures is one more chink in the argument that unemployment benefits are driving the workforce shortage. Those voluntary job-leavers generally don’t get unemployment benefits. They’re stepping out not because they want to claim government checks (although government work accounted for 188,000 of June’s new jobs) but because they see chance to get better jobs. And indeed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics June report indicates that those quitters (changers? transitioners? aspirants?) are stepping out into a worker’s market:
The report also suggested that American workers are enjoying an upper hand in the job market as companies, desperate to staff up in a surging economy, dangle higher wages. In June, average hourly pay rose a solid 3.6% compared with a year ago — faster than the pre-pandemic annual pace. In addition, a rising proportion of newly hired workers are gaining full-time work, as the number of part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs tumbled — a healthy sign.
“That underscores the growing bargaining power of labor,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, a tax advisory firm. “There’s increasing confidence that they’re going to get better jobs at better wages as the U.S. economy expands” [Christopher Rugaber, “U.S. Hiring Accelerated Last Month as Workers See Pay Gains,” AP, 2021.07.02].
The new labor market is showing evidence that $15 an hour, while still not a living wage for families in most places, is becoming the new market minimum for getting entry-level workers:
Karen Fichuk, chief executive of Randstad North America, a recruiting and staffing firm, said that companies that offer higher wages are finding the workers they need. She said that offering $15 an hour is particularly effective at getting people to take jobs.
Travis Crabtree, chief executive of Houston-based Swyft Filings, which processes government forms for people who are establishing small businesses, said his 85-person company is enjoying fast growth as more Americans start their own businesses. He has 19 job openings.
“Clients who are increasing their pay rates are filling their jobs,” she said, referring to companies that Randstad recruits for. “It seems like $15 an hour is kind of this threshold. It kind of tips the scale.”
For entry-level customer service workers, Swyft already pays $15 an hour and offers stable work schedules and an office environment. So it hasn’t had any trouble finding new employees, Crabtree said [Rugaber, 2021.07.02].
Funny: Grover Norquist was shouting just last week that paying $15 an hour will kill jobs, but the market Grover loves is saying that’s the minimum wage necessary to get people to take jobs.
But hey, it’s the Fourth of July weekend, when we should all spend as much time as possible unemployed. Throw your ties or hardhats in the closet, go to the lake, don’t burn down the prairie… and then Monday or Tuesday, let’s all get back to rebuilding the economy.
The Biden economy is doing great, I’m sure Trump will lie about it again tomorrow in Sarasota, rains forecast so thats good. Remember when Trump was first running he continually lied about the economy and said that Obama was making the GDC numbers up. He lied about that for months until he won and then all the numbers were fine. Never mentioned them negatively his entire ONE term. He’s just lies continually, it hasn’t been news for years, wonderful strategy. Its the pubs way of living. You have feel for the ulcerous cult don’t you?
iowa joke Sinator Grassley came pout and gave drumpf total credit for great jobs numbers. No wonder 60 plus % want to replace Grassley.
Don’t work in SD.
The work is harder and you get called lazy by the boss!
Dishwashers in CO start at $18.
Cooks at $22.
With benefits and a state sponsored safety net.
FWIW: I’m at a work assignment in River Falls WI, just east pf the Cities. It’s both a college town and has a fair amount of light manufacturing. Everyone is hiring – retail, construction, manufacturing, the hospital, the University of Wisconsin campus. The advertised wages start at $14/hour at McDonald’s and go up from there. A company that makes pre-fab building systems is paying finish carpenters $35-$50/hour.
Grover Norquist is a tru economic villain. He was the originator of the pledge to not raise taxes that became more binding to GOP legislators than their Constitutional oath. Norquist does not give economic analysis; he gives talking points — talking points that have been disproven over and over.
Another element of this whole worker shortage that is not being discussed is that about two million people retired because of COVID. There were workers working because they needed to feel fulfilled or had some loyalty to a company, but when COVID stopped them form working, they found out that that was pretty good.
So the big story when we put all the COVID shortages together is that the US has propped up its workforce with the most easily exploited: minimum wage earners, foreign workers, retained or reemployed retirees. Now that the market is seeing the true cost of labor, they are shocked (although they want to still blame government for unemployment largess).
We have a lot of jobs here, wages might be at Republican Insurrectionist levels. But look at Burma with the generals having a coup:
It is already one of Asia’s poorest countries. Six million people live on less than $3.20 a day, a poverty threshold for lower middle-income countries like Myanmar. A fourth of the nation’s children are far too small for their age because of inadequate nutrition. (From Wall Street Journal in April 2021)
Think big! How can we re-make our economy Much Better and also lift 6 million Burmese out of poverty? There are Burmese people on fiverr.com
See what happens when Generals take over and run the country into the ground. Banks are closed, factories shut down, people go to the rural areas of Burma for food.
Nome sending Nat. Guard down to Texas on someone else’s dime? She’s prepping for coup or screw the people and the laws and the Constitution, we ll just do it any way we want.
We’re going to (all of us) become a lot more adept at finance and economics and PREVENT South Dakota from going the coup route or the one party Fascism medium that they seek to do.
Social businesses in South Dakota and Burma can raise wages permanently!
Interesting article on Journaling. Notice the title. Manifest your goals!
https://thriveglobal.com/stories/manifest-your-goals-with-journaling/
Anyone for Universal $36 an hour jobs? Count me in!
From the above article–
“You can also use journaling to help you manifest something in your life quicker. Sounds interesting, right?
When you write about your life as if you already have something that you are working towards, this will program your brain to see more of that thing and more possibilities to make it happen. When you allow yourself to feel the way you want to feel and write it down as if you have it, see what you’d see and write about it as if you can see it and hear what you would hear as if you have the thing you are working towards then you will notice so much more in your reality to back it up.
This is because you are programming the part of your brain called the RAS. The reticular activating system. This is the part of your brain that notices things. So when you bought your last car and then began seeing it everywhere this is why. It is because it is now in your awareness and you have been focussing on it. Now it’s everywhere.
When we journal like this the same thing happens. You begin to notice all of the things in your reality and surroundings that will support you to achieve your goal.
So get journaling, and remember to write as if you already have what you want. Write as if you can see, hear and feel the way you’ll feel when you have it.
— Published on June 28, 2021”
Try this! It’s a lot more fun to have your own Empire of serendipities and positive happenings. Better that! Than being on the choo choo train of bitching and noticing everything bad.
Good can triumph!
How about a 50 year continuous reign in South Dakota of Democrats and Progressives? From 2023 to 2073. Journal about it and watch it happen!
BAH.
Grudz won all his old high school debates with his BAH.