"According to economist Steven Rattner of Morning Joe, the United States has now had 26 consecutive months—more than two years—of unemployment under 4%, the longest stretch of unemployment that low since the late 1960s.
Rattner pointed out that immigrants have helped to push U.S. growth since the pandemic by adding millions of new workers to the labor market."
@wdlindsy true, and good news, but worth setting alongside average earnings and wealth distribution data for a bit of context. Hardly surprising that so many people in the US see little sign of economic prosperity.
@BibbleCo Oh, I think it is, indeed, surprising that in numerous counties where pollsters find people reporting that the economy is better for them right now, it's dismal for the US as a whole.
What we're seeing is the deep inroads of disinformation in the American public precisely parallel to the kind of counterfactual disinformation spread during the pandemic.
People who do not want to give Biden and the Democrats credit will do anything to deny the reality of economic recovery.
@wdlindsy "...supply side economics has never worked, but it has become an article of faith for Republicans"
This is why GOP administrations drive thé US economy into a ditch every time.
@Barbramon1 I was struck by that good line, too. And you're absolutely right: this is at the core of the Republicans' inability to build a sound economy that serves anyone other than the super-rich.
"As native-born workers have aged into retirement, immigrants have taken their places and 'been essential to America’s post-COVID labor market recovery.'
Heather Long of the Washington Post added that wage growth has been 4.1% in the past year, which is well above the 3.2% inflation rate.
@wdlindsy No, not simply wrong. They report what they want to report and nothing more. They've been doing it for the last 40+ years. Matter-of-fact for over 50 years now. Did you know that they were reporting the U4 rate of unemployment and then switched over to reporting the U3 rate back around 1968-1970, because it sounds better than the U4 as the U4 rate is a bit higher. There's six levels of unemployment and if they reported U6 it would always be worse than what you or others realize.
@wdlindsy Just happened to go back here to this. Yes, that portion is true, also part of what they report but there's no focus on it. Nonetheless, they report what they want to report the way they want to report it. Most of the growth has been among the illegals that came in since 2021. It's nothing to be happy about. They have jobs many natural born people would like at a decent pay scale. Plus there's millions over the age of 55 who would be glad to have one of those jobs but aren't favored because they're not one of the illegals. So they either do without, collect Disability or Social Security or get UBI where available which is nothing.
The wage growth is meaningless because if millions go without a pay raise for 2-5+ years, (there's many like that) but you have people getting 5-10% more year over year then that only makes things better for those with the pay raises. There's many that get 5-10 % wage increases every year or so. It doesn't make it better for the remainder and those are most of the 75% cutting back on expenses.
There was a loss of 6,000 full-time jobs. A gain of 600,000+ part-time jobs which are predominantly low wage paying jobs. Part-time jobs are counted as full-time jobs under the U3.
The jobs report is BS and just like the DOW or S&P rising doesn't do a bit of good for 70% of the people.