Help Is Wanted (It's officially no longer a jobless recovery)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, May 10, 2004

[presidio9]

With all the attention on Iraq, the blowout April jobs report barely made the front pages on the weekend. So allow us to mark the news as the official death of the "jobless recovery."

The allegedly "sluggish" economy has now created 867,000 new jobs since the beginning of 2004, 1.1 million since August. Jobs are coming back even in manufacturing, to the tune of 30,000 in the last two months. The civilian unemployment rate fell again to 5.6%, down from the June 2003 peak of 6.3% -- which is below the peak of 7.5% during the recession in the early 1990s, and below the 9.7% peak of the recession in the early 1980s.

These numbers are especially notable given the continuing increase in productivity. For months productivity gains were seen as a business substitute for new hiring, but not anymore. Overall business productivity climbed 4.5% in the first quarter, and by a whopping 5.9% in durable goods manufacturing.

If they follow their usual pattern, pessimists and partisans will now drop the "jobless recovery" line in favor of the "hamburger flipper" assertion. That is, they'll claim these new service" jobs aren't nearly as good as the old jobs in manufacturing that have gone to Mexico or China. Ergo, the middle-class is "vanishing."

Sorry, that's also phony spin. Economist David Malpass at Bear Stearns calculates that average hourly earnings in manufacturing in April were $15.24, or $16.08 with overtime. Average hourly earnings in all service jobs were a comparable $15.17. If you exclude the retail and leisure sectors, service jobs paid $17.25 on average. The better-paying categories -- in finance, information, professional services, education and health care -- have produced most of the new service jobs (574,000) in the past six months. To put it another way, those productivity gains are gradually making their way as pay increases into worker pocketbooks.

[CyberCowboy777]

You want to know how well Americans are doing?

What type of cars do the average Americans drive and what is the average price? How many do they have?

http://www.edmunds.com/reviews/list/top10/101528/article.html

[RipSawyer]

In and of itself, what kind of car someone drives does not tell me that much, I have known very wealthy people who knock around in old junkers, even the vehicles I have seen listed for John Kerry are not that new or impressive, and I have known people who drive around in new, expensive vehicles who owe more money than everything they own in the world is worth. Sorry, but that just doesn't cut it for me.

[CyberCowboy777]

I will not feel sorry for a guy at $18.00 an hour driving a new F-150 pulling a boat.

Americans complain if they have to drive a 6 year old car, and when they buy a new rig they are not buying the cheap Korean cars.

The fact that a wealthy person is driving a beater does not say anything about the standard of living in the US, but rather the financial smarts of wealthy people.

[VOA]

Bank of America is not laying off thousands due to a bad economy - they are laying
off people due to their merger...

Every time we see a BOA advert for on-line banking...think more jobs shed.
And it's an inevitable trend.

[sixmil]

That is one of the reasons why they intitially tend to be overcompensated.

Who died and put you in charge of supply and demand?

[RipSawyer]

"I will not feel sorry for a guy at $18.00 an hour driving a new F-150 pulling a boat."

I don't either, so what's your point?

[CyberCowboy777]

The standard of living is high, maybe higher than ever.

[RipSawyer]

I suppose it really depends on how you define the standard of living, maybe to you it is higher, to me no.

[CyberCowboy777]

High levels of two cars ownership

Most homes have multiple TVs

Highest home ownership levels

High Computer ownership and online users

High non-broadcast TV subscriptions

Yeah, we are just wallowing in poverty.

[RipSawyer]

Why do you want to flog a dead horse? Okay, according to your ideas your standard of living has gone up, I am glad you are happy, but I don't have to see it the same way as you.

[CyberCowboy777]

According to my standards?

I have not mentioned one thing about myself, you are the one using your own arbitrary standards to contradict reality.

[NRA2BFree]

The allegedly "sluggish" economy has now created 867,000 new jobs since the beginning of 2004, 1.1 million since August. Jobs are coming back even in manufacturing, to the tune of 30,000 in the last two months. The civilian unemployment rate fell again to 5.6%, down from the June 2003 peak of 6.3% -- which is below the peak of 7.5% during the recession in the early 1990s, and below the 9.7% peak of the recession in the early 1980s.

How can this be? This is not possible. Flip flop Kerry said the economy was ruined by President Bush. I have to post this on a liberal forum now. Oh, what doom and gloom. LOL

[RipSawyer]

You really don't get it do you? You started all this by suggesting that I should judge the standard of living by what cars people own and drive and I told you that I don't buy it and why. If you wish to believe that things are rosy and wonderful believe it, I hope for you it is true but to me there is a lot more involved than the statistics you quote. Have a wonderful day, I am tired of this game.

[ChadGore]

GOOD NEWS FOR AMERICA?

"I'm
deeply
saddened"