The Federal Reserve is increasing their interest rate by 0.25%, all thanks to a stabilizing economy and growing labor market. We have seen a significant increase in jobs, over 200,000 a month, and a drop in unemployment rates, down to 5% (lowest since 2008). But these numbers and gains don't tell the whole story.
While there have been about 13 million new jobs generated in the last 5 or so years, the Recession still hindered the job market's growth in a major way. There are 149.3 million jobs at the end of 2015, but there would be 6 million more jobs had the Recession never occurred. The labor market is expected to recover in 2020, and that's only if 205,000 jobs are created per month. This pattern is already starting to fall short (about 201,000 per month in the last 4 months), so it could take even longer for the market to recover. Probably the most striking statistic is unemployment rate. We have been told that it is at 5%, a solid number and as low as it was before the Recession. But this percentage isn't quite accurate. More than 94 million unemployed people are unaccounted for, due to retirement, school, or they aren't actively looking for work. This 94 million unemployed statistic also doesn't include the part-time and contract workers. When all of these factors are put into place, the country's unemployment rate jumps to a shocking 9.9%, almost double the reported figure. This is frightening because the job market isn't as solid as we thought it was, and certainly not as strong as it has been reported to be. Only about 60% of the working age population is employed, surprising given the number of jobs that have been created. These statistics have been less than accounted for in regards to the government, and while the job market has indeed increased and become more solid, it is not anywhere close to where it needs to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment