4 ms·

Most probably the employment figures only tell half of the story. As long as one has to get two jobs in order to have a decent living in many parts of the US th

Most probably the employment figures only tell half of the story. As long as one has to get two jobs in order to have a decent living in many parts of the US then I don’t think said employment rate tells the whole story.

lbotos 4y ago
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SCT1 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SCT1 - We've just crossed pre-covid employment levels https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SCT4 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SCT4 - Across the same time period there are less people with multiple jobs (as reported to the FED) You can see more specific data breakdowns here: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=50&eid=2698#snid=2700 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=50&eid=2698#s... I think your point is "many poor people still need two jobs to make a living" and while that's probably true, we have many people who are now back to work, and many of them are not working two jobs. Is it because their second job went out of business? Unclear.
paulmd 4y ago
having two jobs doesn't affect the employment rate, you are still either employed or not. And if you work five minutes a month doing some dishes for your neighbor for pay, you are still technically employed, too. it could affect the job hires rate, of course, but, the measure hasn't changed, people are just looking for reasons to nitpick it
- paganel 4y ago
  > the employment rate, you are still either employed or not. I know that, I didn't say otherwise, but having to have two jobs in order to make ends meet makes stats like the employment rate almost orthogonal to the economical and social "welfare" of the population. Of course having no jobs at all it's worse, but hiding behind the mantra of "people are employed" without looking at how good or bad their socio-economic condition really is kind of misses the point.

lbotos 4y ago

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SCT1 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SCT1 - We've just crossed pre-covid employment levels https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SCT4 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=SCT4 - Across the same time period there are less people with multiple jobs (as reported to the FED) You can see more specific data breakdowns here: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=50&eid=2698#snid=2700 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=50&eid=2698#s... I think your point is "many poor people still need two jobs to make a living" and while that's probably true, we have many people who are now back to work, and many of them are not working two jobs. Is it because their second job went out of business? Unclear.

paulmd 4y ago

having two jobs doesn't affect the employment rate, you are still either employed or not. And if you work five minutes a month doing some dishes for your neighbor for pay, you are still technically employed, too. it could affect the job hires rate, of course, but, the measure hasn't changed, people are just looking for reasons to nitpick it

paganel 4y ago
> the employment rate, you are still either employed or not. I know that, I didn't say otherwise, but having to have two jobs in order to make ends meet makes stats like the employment rate almost orthogonal to the economical and social "welfare" of the population. Of course having no jobs at all it's worse, but hiding behind the mantra of "people are employed" without looking at how good or bad their socio-economic condition really is kind of misses the point.