Realtor, General Contractor, and Developer · Redding, CA · Member since 2009 · 7k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
The truth is, those numbers don't take into account the hundreds of thousands of people that have dropped out of the labor force and given up hope. They were saying that the "true" unemployment rate is 11%. It would be interesting to go back to 2007 and look at the numbers, along with the average hourly wage for each age at that time.
Too many of the jobs are low paying jobs, and that's one of the things they say about the trend of business moving to Texas. Though a lot of jobs are being created, what are the actual wages? On the other end of the spectrum, we have areas where there is strong union participation, and wages are unsustainable, and totally ridiculous, causing our manufacturing sector to flee to China. Then we have California and our trend of being "the most stringent" on environmental laws etc. which translates into too expensive to do business in! We need BALANCE.
Real Estate Investor · Sebastian, FL · Member since 2014 · 812 posts · 432 votes
11y
@Jon Klaus The problem is that more people are working, but for less money. The average raise over the last few years has been horrible, not even keeping up with inflation or close. Profits are up significantly, wages aren't. Most workers have lost serious spending power over the last decade or more.
And McDonalds and WalMart etc. continue to structure their wages and hours such that the taxpayers are subsidizing their employees so that they can make bigger profits for their shareholders.
Investor · Boise, ID · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 736 votes
11y
@Jon Klaus - Thanks for the link. Really useful! I would love to look at a similar list of average household annual income for each of the cities. If you or anyone have a link to one- please share.
Real Estate Investor · Central, TX · Member since 2012 · 479 posts · 165 votes
11y
Jon, this little disclaimer at the bottom, NOTE: Rates shown are a percentage of the labor force, makes me wonder how accurate these numbers really are. What are the unemployment percentages if we use the labor participation numbers from the previous years?
Realtor, General Contractor, and Developer · Redding, CA · Member since 2009 · 7k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
The truth is, those numbers don't take into account the hundreds of thousands of people that have dropped out of the labor force and given up hope. They were saying that the "true" unemployment rate is 11%. It would be interesting to go back to 2007 and look at the numbers, along with the average hourly wage for each age at that time.
Too many of the jobs are low paying jobs, and that's one of the things they say about the trend of business moving to Texas. Though a lot of jobs are being created, what are the actual wages? On the other end of the spectrum, we have areas where there is strong union participation, and wages are unsustainable, and totally ridiculous, causing our manufacturing sector to flee to China. Then we have California and our trend of being "the most stringent" on environmental laws etc. which translates into too expensive to do business in! We need BALANCE.