Certain things I get no pleasure being right about. Like the lack of jobs. But, hey, I said back in July no one should be celebrating short-term hype on the economy. Sure enough…
American employers hired at a surprisingly weak pace in August, even as the unemployment rate fell slightly, the Labor Department said Friday.
With an increase in payrolls last month of 142,000, August is the first month since January that hiring slipped below the 200,000 level, an important threshold to beat if the economy is going to be able to absorb new entrants while also reducing the ranks of the long-term unemployed.
And:
For example, the proportion of working-age Americans in the labor force dipped to 62.8 percent last month, compared with 62.9 percent in July, close to historic lows. While the downward trend in recent years can be attributed in part to retiring baby boomers, many economists believe at least half the drop is because Americans have simply given up the job hunt and dropped out of the labor force entirely.[emphasis added]
This really isn’t much of a surprise. The economy stinks. Part of that goes back to the flat-lining of wages and it’s simple to understand: consumer spending is 2/3 to 70 percent of economic activity but if you don’t pay people a decent wage, no one can afford to buy shit.
This isn’t rocket science.
