Unfortunately, "economy" is not a synonym for "job creation." Because millions of people are still out of work, and millions more have jobs that pay starvation wages.
Marginal Revolution recently noted that
...median wages have been stagnant since 1969. The ... full sample of men ... suggests that median wages have declined by 32% or $15,000 (in constant dollars).David Leonhardt wrote recently in the New York Times that 96 percent of men between the ages of 25 and 54 worked. Now that number is about 80 percent. That means one out of every five men in their prime earning years is out of a job.
That's a recovery?
Here are more grim statistics:
- Women have lost 1.6 million jobs since the recession.
- For 27 months, there have been no jobs for three out of four unemployed workers.
- Unemployment averaged 21.8 percent for people under 25 with a high school degree.
- For college graduates, unemployment averaged 9.6 percent for people under 25 with a college degree.
- In April there were 24.8 million workers who were either unemployed or underemployed.
We know what we need to do. Buy American. Build infrastructure. Renegotiate NAFTA. End tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.
Too bad our government hasn't figured it out.
