Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Guest post: Mark Provost Why the Rich Love High Unemployment

Guest post by Mark Provost Why the Rich Love High Unemploymentvia Truthout Christina Romer, former member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors, accuses the administration of “shamefully ignoring” the unemployed. Paul Krugman echoes her concerns, observing that Washington has lost interest in “the forgotten millions.” America’s unemployed have been ignored and forgotten, but they […]

The Euro area is ‘miserable’

For all of our economic problems here in the US, a simple measure of ‘misery’ illustrates that US households are less miserable in March 2011 than those in the Euro area. The chart below illustrates the simple ‘misery index’, which is the unemployment rate plus inflation. The blue line is a 45-degree line; those countries […]

Thoma: The Slow Recovery of Unemployment

Mark Thoma is a truly stand-up guy. We need more like him screaming for the unemployed and underemployed. I’ll comment just a bit more after Mark’s commentary. Mark Thoma on The Slow Recovery of Unemployment: I don’t like to make economic forecasts. Though I do it on occasion, I generally leave that to Tim Duy […]

Grasping for Reality about Labor Market Conditions

Hat tip Mark Thoma for Brad Delong’s catch of the ‘can’t hire workers’ complaint without checking for real reasons or facts: Quote: Grasping for Reality about Labor Market Conditions Fresno is not a microcosm of the US. Brad DeLong explains why “it has never been wise to generalize from the state of Fresno’s labor market […]

The compensationless recovery

New York Times David Leonhardt argues that real wages are rising, so those resilient workers that remain employed will benefit from the bounce-back in “effective pay”. The problem with this insight is twofold: first, the expansion phase of real hourly compensation, a broader measure of total earnings, is falling; and second, sitting atop a mountain […]

Another illustration of the struggling US labor market: teen employment

This recession caused a severe disruption in the labor market for teen employment. The chart below illustrates the unemployment rate alongside the employment-to-population ratio for those aged 16-19 years. The visual is quite striking: at the peak of the business cycle, December 2007, the difference between the employment-to-population ratio over the unemployment rate was roughly […]

Crib notes for G7 unemployment rates

Unemployment rates across the G7 illustrate a broad-based labor recovery. Fantastic – now let’s get to the underlying stories. (Note: The US is the first to release the June 2010 figures. All other unemployment rates, except for the UK, are current as of May 2010.) Germany, France, and Italy: Germany’s labor market is ostensibly improving, […]

Another View of the Data

While I applaud the cautious optimism of Spencer and Tom, I’m more inclined to quote Joseph Brusuelas: [T]he January payrolls added a dollop of Zen like logic to a recovery that is shaping up like no other. An additional 111,000 workers entered the labor force, yet the unemployment rate fell to 9.7% while private sector […]