American workers are not buying the hype. Pew Research finds that a majority (56%) of Americans say their family's income is falling behind the cost of living. More than a third (37%) believe their household income is barely staying even with inflation. Workers are more apprehensive than ever.
There is a disconnect because the president and his minions are fixated on a number that has lost all meaning for ordinary Americans. The unemployment rate, now at 5.0 percent, has almost no relation to the health of the economy because it has been watered down by bureaucratic definitions.
The number does not include people unemployed for 27 weeks or more. It excludes those who are not in the labor force, but have looked for a job in the last 12 months. It does not count so-called discouraged workers who are not longer seeking jobs. The real unemployment is above 9 percent.
This bureaucratic tinkering hasn't fooled Americans. The economic recovery remains a myth for many employees. Most workers know they are hanging on by a thread to their jobs. Even those with secure job futures, have experienced wage stagnation or worse.
This bureaucratic tinkering hasn't fooled Americans. The economic recovery remains a myth for many employees. Most workers know they are hanging on by a thread to their jobs. Even those with secure job futures, have experienced wage stagnation or worse.
The median household income in 2009 when President Obama took office was $55,415. At the end of 2015, it was $56,058. That's a gain of of $643 in seven years. That won't even pay for the rate increases of the last three years that consumers experienced under Obamacare health coverage.
The Pew Research Center has analyzed the real wages of U.S. workers, which means earnings after adjusting for inflation. After poring over five decades worth of wage data, the research concluded that real wages have been trending downward for years.
Since 2000, wage data from the Labor Department adjusted for inflation reveals that workers' pay has fallen 3.7 percent in real terms. There are many theories being bandied about to explain the phenomenon, but most fall short of identifying the intrinsic cause.
Economists fail to account for the abrupt change in the nature of American jobs. It is hardly news that the country has evolved from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. However, there has been little accounting for the sheer numbers of lost jobs and the wage trade-offs of the new economy.
In 1979, there were 19,553,000 manufacturing jobs in America. Today the number is 12,291,000 and tumbling each month. Manufacturing shredded another 29,000 jobs in March. In the last 36 years, 7,262,000 American manufacturing jobs have disappeared. Gone. Forever.
The figures for March job growth underscore the depressed wage issue. There was a gain of 215,000 in payrolls for the month, a figure the ill-informed hailed as a sign of booming job expansion. Nonsense. Most of the hiring was in retail stores, fast-food restaurants and bars.
That means the only payrolls expanding are those for jobs that offer wages below the national average. For example, the current average hourly pay for a manufacturing job is $25.69, according to the Labor Department. Retail and food service jobs average $17.77 and $13.73, respectively.
If you dive below the headline numbers, you also discover the number of Americans working part time for economic reasons rose 135,000 in March. These workers want full-time employment but cannot find it. It means there are more than six million people mired in financial quicksand.
Unfortunately, this has become the new economy ushered in by President Barrack Obama, whose policies have pressured businesses to reduce hours, flatten payrolls and outsource jobs. The next president will face the arduous task of reversing eight years of economic paralysis and wage decay.
The Pew Research Center has analyzed the real wages of U.S. workers, which means earnings after adjusting for inflation. After poring over five decades worth of wage data, the research concluded that real wages have been trending downward for years.
Since 2000, wage data from the Labor Department adjusted for inflation reveals that workers' pay has fallen 3.7 percent in real terms. There are many theories being bandied about to explain the phenomenon, but most fall short of identifying the intrinsic cause.
Economists fail to account for the abrupt change in the nature of American jobs. It is hardly news that the country has evolved from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. However, there has been little accounting for the sheer numbers of lost jobs and the wage trade-offs of the new economy.
In 1979, there were 19,553,000 manufacturing jobs in America. Today the number is 12,291,000 and tumbling each month. Manufacturing shredded another 29,000 jobs in March. In the last 36 years, 7,262,000 American manufacturing jobs have disappeared. Gone. Forever.
The figures for March job growth underscore the depressed wage issue. There was a gain of 215,000 in payrolls for the month, a figure the ill-informed hailed as a sign of booming job expansion. Nonsense. Most of the hiring was in retail stores, fast-food restaurants and bars.
That means the only payrolls expanding are those for jobs that offer wages below the national average. For example, the current average hourly pay for a manufacturing job is $25.69, according to the Labor Department. Retail and food service jobs average $17.77 and $13.73, respectively.
If you dive below the headline numbers, you also discover the number of Americans working part time for economic reasons rose 135,000 in March. These workers want full-time employment but cannot find it. It means there are more than six million people mired in financial quicksand.
Unfortunately, this has become the new economy ushered in by President Barrack Obama, whose policies have pressured businesses to reduce hours, flatten payrolls and outsource jobs. The next president will face the arduous task of reversing eight years of economic paralysis and wage decay.
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