But...butt...
...unemployment is only 5.9%
(do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
Posted on 11/06/2014 7:57:13 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I recently wrote about sluggish and stagnant wages, which are said to weaken the economy's recovery. I argued that workers' fear of losing their jobs is an important - perhaps decisive - explanation. In a nutshell: Frightened of being fired and being unable to find a new job, workers are less inclined to quit and search for something better. Therefore, employers don't have to raise wages, or can raise them less, to retain their best workers. Wage gains have been running at about 2 percent annually, a bit above the rate of inflation.
There are many competing theories. The most obvious: For labor, it's still a buyer's market. There remain millions of unemployed Americans eager to fill openings; this includes both those officially counted as unemployed and those so discouraged that they have stopped looking for work. Businesses keep wage gains down because there's a surplus of applicants.
But one theory I should have mentioned involves what economists call "downward nominal wage rigidity." In plain language, workers don't like to see their wages cut, even in hard times. The prejudice against wage cuts is so strong that many firms voluntarily abstain from doing so. The reason is not altruism, but fear of adverse consequences. Workers would be demoralized; productivity would suffer; companies would be stigmatized as bad places to work.
In a paper, three economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco argued that the norm against wage cuts helps explain wage patterns in the Great Recession and the subsequent recovery. "As the economy falls into a recession," they wrote, "businesses would like to reduce wages" - but don't because that would violate the norm. Instead, the economists contended, companies compensate by holding down wage increases during the recovery.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
What’s causing the wage stagnation?
Obama
Surplus of workers.
Higher profits equal higher wages.
He hasn’t heard that we’ve lost a million jobs over the last few years? Something like that has a tendency to keep wages down.
Is he from Mars?
Illegal immigration and DREAMERs certainly contribute.
Wide-spread incompetence? Not working for a commission?
But...butt......unemployment is only 5.9%
(do I really need a sarcasm tag?)
Illegals.......................
Uh...Global Warming?
Especially hard hit are companies which have a substantially mature workforce. Those employees generally forgo any maternity coverage in their policies.
Add in local laws mandating sick leave, holidays and even mandatory vacation time, most employee costs are skyrocketing while wages have remained flat.
Too few job openings because this administration and democrats have done everything possible to destroy businesses.
Correct.
2. Lunatic "free" trade policies that undercut American businesses and that lead to the transfer of American technology overseas
You want to see wages rise? Create a labor shortage by restricting immigration at both the top and bottom and where businesses have an incentive to hire because they have a market that's not undercut by unfair foreign competition.
You know, the way we were from 1945 - 1965, when the average projected lifetime earnings of a high school graduate were higher than those of a college graduate.
We have a winner!
Obviously the only solution is to import millions of unskilled uneducated workers from the third world.
Yes, a totally made up, fake, and inaccurate number, as you know.
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