Thursday, January 16, 2020

There are more jobs than people out of work, something the American economy has never experienced before


From CNBC:
There are 6.7 million job openings and just 6.4 million available workers to fill them, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
April marked the second month in a row that there were more vacancies than available hires, a phenomenon that had not happened before 2018. 
Despite the mismatch, sizeable wage gains remain elusive, with average hourly earnings up just 2.7 percent over the past year.
This kind of pressure should drive wages up.

Here's another stat on real median household income.

It has not gone up much. It should have with the kind of recovery we are having.

Any thoughts on what dynamics are driving this stagnation?

UPDATE - Pete Rowe offers an answer that makes sense:
Household income does not measure the value of benefits such as healthcare / insurance. Those costs have surged. 
So, total compensation is increasing but it is not the wages that are going up, it is the cost of benefits. Still paying the price for ObamaCare.
MEANWHILE, LOOK AT HOW THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS SPINNING FULL EMPLOYMENT:


2 comments:

Pete Rowe said...

See link below:

https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2016/12/the-puzzle-of-real-median-household-income/?utm_source=series_page&utm_medium=related_content&utm_term=related_resources&utm_campaign=fredblog

Household income does not measure the value of benefits such as healthcare / insurance. Those costs have surged. So, total compensation is increasing but it is not the wages that are going up, it is the cost of benefits. Still paying the price for ObamaCare.

Pastorius said...

Yes, that makes complete sense.

Hell, healthcare is going up by like 10-12% per year, so if that's taken into consideration, then wages are skyrocketing.