Housing Market

So This Is What “Full Employment” Look Like?

“Labor unions, meanwhile, remain a powerful force for shared prosperity, a fact confirmed once again by the release last week of the annual Bureau of Labor Statistics report on union membership,” said Labor Secretary Tom Perez. “Median weekly earnings of full-time union workers ($975) were more than 25 percent higher than those of non-union workers ($776) in 2015. That amounts to more than $10,000 a year for hardworking Americans, and it puts upward pressure on wages and standards throughout the economy.”

“[Government numbers] don't show the quality of the jobs,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank. “They don't obviously pick up the anxiety that workers are feeling. [Concerns over job security] may also be adding to economic jitters and uncertainties.”

"The problem with the optimist narrative is that so much of total private sector gains are in low-wage industries — hardly the broadening of employment the Fed is looking for," wrote Steve Blitz, chief economist for ITG Investment Research, in a research note. "Most industry sectors still employ fewer people than they did when the recession began."

Source:
CNBC.com
Jeff Cox
February 5, 2016

 

 

 

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