Job Market Monitor
A Closer Look
US – Disentangling poverty and unemployment
Historically, the poverty rate has moved with the unemployment rate. Since 1970, in fact, the official poverty rate has spiked during each recession. Intuitively, this makes sense—if you lose your job, then you lose access to a steady stream of income. When you find a new job—as people are wont to do in the recovery … Continue reading
Indigenous workers in Canada – Unemployment rates are much higher
Unemployment rates for Indigenous workers are much higher than for non-Indigenous Canadian born workers, and are comparable to that of new Canadians. As you can tell by the graph below, the recession was more severe and lasted longer for Indigenous workers and new Canadians. So whenever we’re talking about labour market strategies and good jobs, … Continue reading
The Job Gap in US – 5.6 million jobs as of August 2014 finds The Hamilton Project
Each month, The Hamilton Project calculates America’s “jobs gap,” or the number of jobs that the U.S. economy needs to create in order to return to pre-recession employment levels while absorbing the people who newly enter the labor force each month. As of the end of August 2014, our nation faces a jobs gap of … Continue reading
Demographics in US – Prime working-age population growing again
Changes in demographics are an important determinant of economic growth, and although most people focus on the aging of the “baby boomer” generation, the movement of younger cohorts into the prime working age is another key story in coming years. Here is a graph of the prime working age population (this is population, not the … Continue reading
Youth in US – Worse than in 1980s for job and pay
Young people of all races and ethnicities were not employed in 2013 at the rate they were a generation ago, according to data reported today by the National Center for Education Statistics, a division of the Education Department. Americans aged 20 to 24 who did have jobs were paid $4,800 less in 2012 than they … Continue reading
US – Unemployment is falling but still historically high
Six years after the financial panic that nearly sank the U.S. economy, it’s the millions of Americans who aren’t working, or working less than they want to, who pose a challenge to policymakers and a are major contributor to Americans’ persistently sour feeling about the economy. Although the official unemployment rate was down to 6.2% … Continue reading
Graying World – There will be 13 ‘super-aged’ nations by 2020
The world is graying at a break-neck pace and that’s bad news for the global economy. By 2020, 13 countries will be “super-aged” — with more than 20% of the population over 65 — according to a report by Moody’s Investor Service. That number will rise to 34 nations by 2030. Only three qualify now: … Continue reading
Cost Competitiveness – The old worldview now appears to be out of date
For the better part of three decades, a rough, bifurcated conception of the world has driven corporate manufacturing investment and sourcing decisions. Latin America, Eastern Europe, and most of Asia have been viewed as low-cost regions. The U.S., Western Europe, and Japan have been viewed as having high costs. But this worldview now appears to … Continue reading
US – Families in middle class make less than they did 5 years ago
The purchasing power of the typical American family is 3.1 percent lower now than it was five years ago. No wonder people are unhappy about the economy! The benefits of rising levels of economic activity have simply not accrued to middle-income wage earners. Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Why the Middle … Continue reading
US – Misconceptions about long-term unemployment
Misconception: The problem isn’t really that bad At the time of writing, there were 3.2 million long-term unemployed in the U.S. accounting for 32.9 percent of the labor force. We mentioned earlier that this was historically high — even higher than peaks recorded following earlier economic crises — but the graph above should illustrate how … Continue reading
Participation in the US – The decline
Ageing and the workforce The largest single factor behind the decline is the ageing of the population. In order to understand how an ageing population affects overall labour force participation, it is helpful to look at the participation rates of different age groups. Figures 2 and 3 show the participation rate profiles for men and … Continue reading
Skills Gap – Most evident in retail trade and restaurants
Floyd Norris has an interesting column comparing the numbers of job openings, hirings, and quits from 2007 with the most recent three months in 2014. The most striking part of the story is that reported openings are up by 2.1 percent from 2007, while hirings are still down by 7.5 percent. While Norris doesn’t make … Continue reading
Top 10 Skills that usually aren’t taught at school
10. Computer Science With all the emphasis on learning to code these days, it’s hard to believe most schools aren’t teaching computer science. 9. Speed Reading Being a speed reader doesn’t make you a genius or necessarily help you truly comprehend books more than everyone else, but speed reading techniques can still be useful to … Continue reading
Over-65s in UK – More than one million are working
The number of employees over the age of 65 has jumped 36% to 1.09 million since 2010, according to research by Saga. The Coalition abolished the default retirement age of 65 when it came to power, which has led to the proportion of over-65s in the workforce increasing from 3.4% to 3.6% over the past … Continue reading
Unemployment in US State-by-State : 38 Years in one map
A new map—presented as a GIF—is putting unemployment rates in historical context. Courtesy of Metric Maps, the image shows how unemployment rates have changed state-by-state from 1976 to 2014. Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 38 Years of Unemployment Data Displayed in One Map.
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