{"id":3212,"date":"2019-05-07T14:55:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T18:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/?p=3212"},"modified":"2019-05-07T14:55:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T18:55:43","slug":"national-employment-rate-is-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.musingsbymichael.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/07\/national-employment-rate-is-down\/","title":{"rendered":"National Employment Rate is down!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jobs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you have been paying attention, you might know that the National Unemployment Rate<\/a> is 3.6 percent for April of this year. It was 9.9 percent back in 2010, when Obama was president.<\/span><\/p>\n

From the National Review<\/a>, \u201cLast month the unemployment rate sank to an amazing 3.6 percent, the lowest rate since 1969. Unfortunately, the labor market is in worse shape today than it was 50 years ago. An important difference is that more of the people we usually expect to work \u2014 namely, men ages 25 to 54 \u2014 are not even looking for jobs.<\/i>\u201d The article went on with this, \u201cIn 1969, 94.5 percent of all prime-age men had a job, and just 4 percent were out of the labor force entirely. In 2019, however, the comparable employment rate is 86.5 percent, with about 11 percent out of the labor force. Although nearly all prime-age men who wanted a job could find one in both years \u2014 hence the low unemployment rates \u2014 the decades-long trend of labor force dropout has taken its toll on overall employment. Non-working prime-age men were simply much rarer in 1969 than they are today<\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What should you get from the above? The answer is that too many people who are aged from 25 to 54 have given up looking for work. From Forbes<\/a>, \u201cBut to put this all into perspective, imagine that the current labor force participation rate were still at its January 2007 mark: i.e., 66.4% and not 63%. That would add almost 9 million willing workers. Putting those individuals into the labor force in today but adding no more jobs than we actually have raises unemployment from <\/i>3.6% to 8.5%<\/i><\/strong>! Let me say that again: Had the labor force participation rate not fallen over the past 12 years, the unemployment rate would be more than double this morning’s report.<\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Those who are working have not been getting wage raises that are meaningful and as usual company executives are looking at the bottom line while wearing a set of blinders. They can not see that without a decent pay scale for their workers, those who might want a job are just sitting on the sidelines instead of on the employment line.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the problems is that jobs have been steadily been moving from being labor to technology intensive and too many have gotten bad advice that saddles them with humongous debit. That advice was to go to college and get a degree. Not everyone needs to get a degree from a university to get a well paying job and yet that is what recruiters are told to look for.<\/span><\/p>\n

In many cases it would be better to go to a trade school instead. Go look at how much a plumber or electrician makes, it will surprise you. From ZipRecruiter<\/a> \u201cAs of Apr 30, 2019, the average monthly pay for an Electrician in the United States is $4,102 a month.<\/i>\u201d That is $49,224 a year, not bad at all. A plumber per ZipRecruter<\/a> \u201cAs of Apr 30, 2019, the average monthly pay for a Plumber in the United States is $4,205 a month.<\/i>\u201d That is $50,460 a year, again not bad at all for no college degree.<\/span><\/p>\n

So it is about time to stop assuming that an expensive college is necessary for a well paying job and take a look at trade school instead. This will not saddle you with high debit that hurts you and everyone else.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike<\/span><\/p>\n