JackBoneTX Wrote:I was just hearing the other day that the U.S. jobs numbers were the best in a long time.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/05/news/eco...bs-report/
Of course that could be temporary or not indicative of other things (like Canada :p).
I would advice not to rely on the unemployment rates covered in the news. Go to
Economic Policy Institute if you want to get the latest data on unemployment.
First, the unemployment rates you mostly hear about only cover people who are out of employment but actively seeking work. In other words, if you're unemployed but not actively looking for a job (for whatever reason), you don't count. EPI has pretty nice
graphs about these "missing workers". As you can see, their number has exploded since the 07 recession (or should we call it a depression now?) and not really come down much. The "official" unemployment rates usually reported in the news give too rosy a picture of the situation.
Second, unemployment rates do not touch the issue of what
kind of jobs have been generated since the 07 recession. For that you'd need to look at
underemployment rates, which cover people who have jobs but don't get enough hours to pay their living costs. The number of people who work part-time involuntarily
exploded in 2008. These are people who are employed but not making enough money so it's not helping them. Moreover, wages remain in
low gear.
In short, there's been no real recovery for working people.