You may have read about how strong our United States economy is based on an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent and statistics that note 1.7 job openings for every 1 job seeker.
So why do things feel so stagnant? Good question.
Jobs are not fungible, an SAT-type word meaning that one job cannot readily be substituted for any other.
Consider a company that needs a computer code writer. But there is a highly skilled bricklayer available. No match there.
And so it goes that the open jobs don’t necessarily match the skills – or lack thereof –of job seekers.
The story goes well beyond that.
You are a skilled worker, of any sort, pulling down $100,000 a year and you lose your job. Down the street is an unskilled teenager who takes a part-time job waiting tables. In the jobs report, that is a one-for-one job loss and gain netting zero effect on the unemployment numbers.
Tell that to the people trying to sell goods and services, who have just seen maybe $95,000 in purchasing power sucked out of the economy. OK, maybe not that much is lost because the laid-off worker gets unemployment payments. But rational people cut back on spending when they have no job, knowing the unemployment, while paid out in much longer increments than previously, still does have a limit.
Geography also factors into the job calculus. It doesn’t necessarily help an unemployed worker in Pennsylvania that there are multiple job openings in California.
If the jobs were attractive enough, maybe. There was a time in the 1960s when it was not that uncommon for unemployed steelworkers from here to relocate to California, at least for a period of time.
But many times now the job openings across the economy are low-paying, perhaps part-time, and with little in the way of benefits. Also, there is the question of longevity. No need to move across the country for a job that might disappear in a few months due to overall economic conditions and the anticipated slowdown.
Factor in, too, that the stratospheric cost of living in some locales makes it a losing proposition to move there even if one has a “decent paying” job.
Also, the unemployment numbers are bastardized by the trend of people to just stay home and suck at the government teat (freebies beyond unemployment insurance ) whenever possible. This lowers the pool of available workers and so tamps down the unemployment rate by artificially lowering the base number of officially unemployed workers.
We won’t even get into the reality that many older workers, often very good at their jobs, are retiring early just to get away from workplace insanity. If they are replaced, it often is by people with lesser skills, experience and, more to the point, much less in the way of work ethic.
I used to run into these people when I still was on the job. They seemed to believe they had gone through the jobseeking process, done the interviews and landed the job. But now they actually were expected to work? Maybe nights, weekends or holidays?
Unacceptable.
Time to crawl back into the parents’ basement and see what kind of handouts the Democrats are offering to buy votes.
The bottom line is the unemployment numbers beg for deeper inspection. Many huge companies are laying off employees – with many analysts thinking this trend is just beginning to pick up steam.
Yet we are to believe unemployment is at or new historical lows and all is right with the economy. It just doesn’t wash.
Sam Ross Jr's site 