Category: Employment
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Thursday, December 14, 2017
The Unprotected, the Protected, the Vulnerably Protected Classes—Which Are You? / Politics / Employment
Last month I shared in Outside the Box (subscribe here) a new McKinsey report on job automation. Every year, reports like this reflect a process that’s occurred many times in human history.
People discover or invent something useful: fire, the wheel, iron, gunpowder, coal, oil, the steam engine, electricity, the automobile, the airplane, the computer, etc. Life changes as the new knowledge spreads. People either adapt or they don’t.
Those who don’t adapt fade into the background. In the last few decades of their working lives, they end up taking the very lowliest of jobs in order to get some food, clothing, and shelter, but it’s not a comfortable life.
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Wednesday, December 13, 2017
The Jobs Report Misled You—Job and Wage Growth Are Actually Decelerating / Economics / Employment
The monthly jobs report is one of the most important statistics for investors.
Yes, any single month doesn’t tell us much. Yes, the Labor Department’s methodology has some flaws, both major and minor, which I covered many times in my newsletter, Thoughts from the Frontline (subscribe here). But imperfect as it is, the jobs report is our best look at the economy’s pulse.
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Thursday, November 02, 2017
The Magnitude of Job Loss We Will See in the Next 20 Years Is Staggering / Economics / Employment
In the next 20 years, we will see more change and improvement than we’ve seen in the last hundred. Think where we were 100 years ago and how much has changed since then. That much and more is going to happen in the next two decades.
Global society really is going to transform that fast.
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Friday, May 12, 2017
The Jobs Market Has Divided Into People Who Are Tech Savvy And Those Who Aren’t / Economics / Employment
Things keep changing. And at an accelerating pace. One of the most important things to write about—and the most difficult—is the future of work. New Technology destroys old jobs, but it would also create new jobs and opportunities.
A clear example of this is the use of drone technology by the military. It requires about 100 people to prep and launch and maintain an F-16 for a single mission. Keeping an unmanned predator drone in the air for 24 hours requires about 168 workers.
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Friday, May 12, 2017
Robots May Perform Half The Jobs In The US Within 20 Years: Here’s What That Could Mean / Economics / Employment
Perhaps you don’t think the change that is upon us is a profound one. But consider this: Within two decades, half the jobs in this country may be performed by robots. What then of our unemployment rate? And what of our social safety net?
Opinion is divided. Will the next technological wave further skew the wealth distribution toward the uber-rich? Or will it ultimately create more entrepreneurial and job opportunities than it destroys?
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Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Charts That Reveal US Real Employment Status and It’s Not Good / Economics / Employment
The “labor force” from which we get unemployment statistics includes only those people who are either working or wish to be working.
It ignores the retired, those in school, the disabled, and nonworking spouses—as well as those who are not interested in working.
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Raising the Minimum Wage Is a Jobs Killing Move / Economics / Employment
By Stephen McBride: In January, 19 US states raised their respective minimum wages. Washington was among the most generous, hiking by $1.53 (bringing it to $11 per hour). Arizona got an increase of $1.95—their “bottom rung” now sits at $10 per hour.
In all, 4.3 million workers are slated to receive a hike as they earn less than the new minimum wage in their respective states. Well, that’s what’s meant to happen. Judging by the fallout from recent hikes, it seems things aren’t going according to plan.
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Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Startups Will Define the Future of US Employment / Economics / Employment
Research shows that technology has net-net created far more jobs than it has destroyed. A recent study by Deloitte drew on data going back to 1871 in England and Wales and found that technology has been a job-creating machine.
Part of that is because technology increases people’s spending power, which creates a surge in the demand for hairdressers, bar staff, etc.
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Friday, March 10, 2017
Why the US Will Lose Tens of Millions of Jobs in the Next 20 Years / Economics / Employment
A significant part of Trump’s campaign centered on the angst of the white middle class and the ongoing loss of jobs in the Rust Belt. And that focus gave him his margin of victory.
Trump promised to bring those jobs back, a sentiment that resonated powerfully with the electorate. The problem is—as we’ve talked about previously—that at least 80–90% of manufacturing jobs were lost not to companies moving factories to China or Mexico but to increased automation.
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Friday, February 03, 2017
Shocking Fact in Today's US Jobs Report: Employment Stalls / Economics / Employment
Initial Reaction
Today's employment report shows a robust increase of 227,000 jobs. The good news stops there. The rest of the report was horrific.
The big news is in employment where the three-month trend worsened.
In the last three months, employment has only risen by a grand total of 33,000. Employment in January declined by 30,000. For the entire year, employment rose by only 1,548,000. The average increase from a year ago is only 129,000 per month.
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017
We Could See US Job Creation Fall off the Cliffs in the Months Ahead / Economics / Employment
Let’s do a quick thought experiment…Imagine you’ve got two people in the workforce. Let’s say one is 40 and the other 65.
When both are gainfully employed, the unemployment rate is 0%. We’re enjoying full employment within the labor pool.
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Tuesday, December 13, 2016
A Closer Look at Our Recent US Employment Numbers / Economics / Employment
Last week the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy created 178,000 jobs – with 156,000 in the private sector and 22,000 in government – which is right in line with the monthly average for 2016.But let’s dig a little deeper past the headline numbers. For years we’ve argued that there’s more to the story than just the number of jobs created. We want to know, and our economy depends on, how much money people are paid.
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Monday, December 12, 2016
The Robot Workforce is Coming - Here’s Why It's Best for Everyone / Economics / Employment
BY PATRICK WATSON : Every day brings a new warning: robots are coming to take our jobs. Soon we’ll all be unemployed… and unable to buy what the robots produce.
What good are robots if all they do is make stuff we can’t afford? I don’t know. But there's no doubt automation will replace some human workers—even (gasp!) writers and editors.
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Tuesday, September 06, 2016
Teen Labour, the Workforce Proves to Be Valuable Education / Politics / Employment
I lied to get my first job.
The minimum required age was 15, and I was only 13. Luckily, I was 5’ 10” at the time, so I could pass for a couple of years older. I proudly drew my first paycheck as a fry cook at the Dairy Bar, a local burger joint in Southeast Texas. I learned a lot more on the job than just how to flip burgers.
On this Labor Day, I was reminded of my days on the food line… and a celebrity hashtag theme #firstsevenjobs that began trending recently. The woman that started it listed her early employment history and many of her followers have since followed suit.
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Monday, August 15, 2016
Why Protectionism Won’t Save Unskilled Labor / Economics / Employment
I just read a policy paper from the German Marshall Fund of the United States. It defends the present trade model. The authors do a good job, but in the process, they describe the problem.
Take a look at this part. (I bolded a few key points.)
The global economy is no longer about making a product in one country, and shipping and selling it somewhere else. It is about complex supply chains that weave together activities all over the globe, supported by investment, technology, and skills that know no borders.
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Tuesday, August 09, 2016
The Phony U.S. Jobs Recovery / Politics / Employment
Last Friday saw the release of a bombshell jobs report, with headlines exclaiming that the US economy added over 250,000 jobs in July, far in excess of any forecasts. The reality was far more grim. Those "jobs" weren't actually created by businesses – they were created by the statisticians who compiled the numbers, through the process of "seasonal adjustment." That's a bit of statistical magic that the government likes to pull out of its hat when the real data isn't very flattering. It's done with GDP, it's done with job numbers, and similar manipulation is done with government inflation figures to keep them lower than actual price increases. In reality there are a million fewer people with jobs this month than last month, but the magic of seasonal adjustment turns that into a gain of 255,000.
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Monday, June 06, 2016
The Keynesians Stole The Jobs / Economics / Employment
Late last week the markets were shocked by a surprisingly bad May jobs report - the worst monthly report in nearly six years. The experts expected the US economy to add 160,000 jobs in May, but it turns out only 38,000 jobs were added. And to make matters worse, 13,000 of those 38,000 were government jobs! Adding more government employees is a drain on the economy, not a measure of economic growth. Incredibly, there are more than 102 million people who are either unemployed or are no longer looking for work.
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Thursday, April 14, 2016
Saving Middle-Class Jobs in America: Is It Worth $30 Socks? / Politics / Employment
My younger daughter doesn’t conform to, well, much of anything. As a very young girl she insisted on doing her own hair. She liked pony tails – lots of them – but as a four or five-year-old, she didn’t have much skill at getting them right. This meant that she often had 11 or 12 fountains of blonde hair sticking out all over her head. She was very proud.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Beware of March Non Farm Payrolls. They Have the Worst Record than any Other Month / Economics / Employment
The table below shows the consistency of misses (actual figure below consensus forecasts) in March NFPs over the last three years. In fact, NFP figures for the month of March have come in below forecasts in 7 out of the last 8 March reports with an average miss of -59k.
Most strikingly & recently, last year's March report showed a 126K reading, well below consensus of 245K. Interestingly, that 129K reading was revised down to 88K one month later.
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Friday, March 04, 2016
US Jobs Report 242,000 Jobs: 304,000 Were Part-Time; Average Weekly Earnings Sank / Economics / Employment
Jobs came in well above expectations at 242,000 despite tax data collections that support a Job Growth estimate of 55,000 to 85,000 .
A quick dive into the details shows the report is a lot weaker than the headline number indicates. Of the 242,000 jobs added, 304,000 of them were part time. That means the economy actually shed 62,000 full-time jobs.
Average hours worked declined as did average weekly earnings despite minimum wage hikes in numerous states at the beginning of the year.
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