A special report on today's jobs report
The April jobs report, just issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed another solid month of job growth in April, with employers adding 428,000 jobs and the U.S. economy regaining nearly 95 percent of the 22 million jobs lost at the height of COVID-related lockdowns in the spring of 2020. The April survey also showed average hourly earnings 5.5 percent higher than a year earlier, although those gains have been offset by an increase in prices.
The big surprise was that the labor force shrank in April by 363,000 workers, and the participation rate (the share of adults who either have a job or are actively looking for one) fell by two-tenths of a point, the biggest one-month drop since September 2020. Labor force participation also fell among adults in their prime working years. Overall, the demand for workers has been rising faster than the supply. Job openings hit a record in March, the Labor Department said this week.
The most obvious remedy for this is for employers to offer their workers more money in real terms (that is, over inflation). After all, the median wage has barely risen for forty years.
But policymakers at the Federal Reserve are intent on slowing the economy instead. The Fed believes climbing wages are fueling inflation, which is why the central bank on Wednesday raised interest rates half a percentage point, the biggest increase since 2000. Speaking after the announcement, Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, cited the labor market, and in particular the record number of job openings relative to the number of unemployed workers, as a reason policymakers had become more aggressive in recent months. “You can see that the labor market is out of balance; you can see that there is a labor shortage,” Mr. Powell said. In April, he described the labor market as “unsustainably hot.”
This, my friends, is bullshit. Prices are being pushed up by corporations enjoying record profits and pricing power. The remedy is a combination of price controls, windfall profits taxes, and vigorous antitrust enforcement.
"Bullshit" indeed! Corporations are raking in record profits yet continue to raise prices on their goods and services. Wage increases have been pitiful compared to the cost of housing, food and fuel. Minimum wage still sits at $7.25 an hour. While dining this week at a local restaurant I mentioned to the waitress that I thought I saw her working at another one a week ago. She confirmed and told me she has three jobs to meet her expenses. If employers want workers, pay them a livable wage and stop crying that no one wants to work for you. I absolutely agree with the three steps that must be taken and know that the only way they will happen is if Democrats take a big majority in congress come November. Let's make sure it does.
I always find it interesting how quickly conservatives jump in to blame workers for whatever happens in the economy. The workers don't get credit for increasing production significantly over the years while being paid no more, but a small raise means the economy is being destroyed and has to be rescued by Powell and his fellow conspiracy theorists. I am disappointed that President Biden chose to keep Powell on but he was trying to do some kind of bipartisan thing. This was a bad decision and it seems whatever Powell wants Powell gets even if it is based on BS that is being fed to him by his conservative cronies. Too many people in power are too scared to put responsibility where it belongs, on out of control corporations that have been permitted to grow too large with too much power. They grab what they can with one hand while they distract with their whining that the pandemic has made everything so hard for them. R.Sheets