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Category Archive: Labor market
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US Unemployment Rate Falls to 7.5 Percent, Strong Upward Revisions for Job Growth
The report on the U.S. employment situation for April released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics contained some good news, with the unemployment rate falling to 7.5 percent, its lowest since late 2008. Payroll jobs rose by a better than expected 165,000, and upward revisions to previous months made job market performance for the [...]
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Is the Chained CPI the Right Fix for Social Security?
One of the most controversial elements of President Obama’s 2014 budget is the proposal to reduce future cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security benefits by changing the inflation index. The Social Security Administration now bases inflation adjustments to on the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers (CPI-W), a close cousin of the [...]
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US Payroll Job Growth Slows; Unemployment Rate Drops as Labor Force Shrinks
The U.S. economy created a disappointing 88,000 payroll jobs in March, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was down sharply from the 268,000 gain in February. The unemployment rate fell to 7.6 percent, a new low for the recovery, but even that was largely due to a drop in labor [...]
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Understanding the Plutocrats: Talent vs. Capital, The Illusion of Skill, and the Winner’s Curse
In my spare time, I have been reading Chrystia Freeland’s The Plutocrats. A refreshingly nonjudgmental book, it seeks neither to condemn nor defend the super-rich, but simply to understand them. The author’s brisk, journalistic prose, with references hidden away at the end by page number, belies the fact that she has done her homework in [...]
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Strong Job Growth and Upward Revisions Contrast Sharply with Reported GDP Decrease
Wednesday’s data release from the Bureau of Economic Analysis surprised us with a reported decrease of 0.1 percent in GDP for Q4 2012. Now, just two days later, a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows robust job growth throughout the last quarter and continuing into January. The two offer sharply contrasting indications of [...]
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Let’s Not Make it Any Harder to Retire; It’s Getting Harder All the Time as it is. (Part 1)
Last week the Business Roundtable came out with a position paper entitled “Social Security Reform and Medicare Modernization Proposals.” Its centerpiece is an increase to 70 in the eligibility for Social Security and Medicare. According to Gary W. Loveman, Ph.D., Chairman, CEO & President, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, and Chair of the Roundtable’s Health and Retirement [...]
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Long-Term Unemployment Falls as U.S. Job Market Ends 2012 on a Quiet Note
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that the U.S. job market ended 2012 on a quiet note. Both the narrow and the broad unemployment rates were the same in December as in November. The economy added 155,000 payroll jobs, almost exactly equal to the month before. A jump of 30,000 in construction jobs [...]
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The Not-So-Simple Economics of Right-to-Work Laws
There was much hand wringing and an equal amount of triumphant cheering last month, when Michigan became the twenty-fourth state to adopt a right to work (RTW) law. It joined Indiana, which went RTW last February, as only the second major industrial state with such a policy. Much of the commentary portrayed the spread of [...]
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US Unemployment Drops to 7.7 Percent, Lowest Since January 2009; Payroll Jobs Continue Steady Rise
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent in November, according to today’s data release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was down 0.2 percent since October, and was the lowest rate reported since January 2009. Payroll jobs increased by 146,000 in the month, continuing a moderate but steady trend. The unemployment rate is [...]
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October Data Show Stronger Labor Market as Workers Return and Part-Time Work Falls
The October jobs figures released today by the BLS showed a stronger U.S. labor market. The unemployment rate edged up by 0.08 percentage points, just enough to raise the headline rate from 7.8 to 7.9 percent. However, a look at the underlying data showed that the uptick in the headline rate was a “good” increase [...]
