US unemployment comes in under expectations.
(twitter.com)
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All these "experts" always say these stats are surprising. If that's the case, maybe we need better experts.
The unemployment rate only really measures people who are actively seeking employment and haven’t been hired. It doesn’t count the people who gave up, or decided to seek further education/certificates. Or account for people who maybe actively underemployed.
It’s one of those metrics that seems really impressive at the surface level. But once you dig into what it actually measures. Is effectively useless as far as being indicative of economic health.
It's still relevant to use as a relative metric until it's replaced with something better and more accurately representative of the actual situation.
And when the economy gets better, more people come off their couch and start looking for work. That usually keeps the number higher for a while during the turnaround. The key is to watch the trends in all the U numbers. U-6 I think is the broadest one.
Yes it’s one of the broadest measures. And often considered by some to be a more accurate representation of the Real unemployment rate.
Most people in "non-career" type jobs are underemployed, thanks to the ACA, which requires healthcare to be employer-provided for everyone working 40 or more hours/week. "Yeah, we're gonna make those mean ol' employers PAY!" That's not what happens in the real world. You just can't get 40 hours anymore.
30 or more hours per week. A few states are 20 or more
I mean I was more so looking at it from the perspective of someone having the qualifications to do career work. Like Engineering or something similar.
But they’re employed stocking shelves at Walmart. Because that’s the only job that was actually hiring.
I wasn’t really looking at it from the perspective of hours worked. Or career/non-career. Even still. A lot of places were screwing their hourly non-career employees on hours even without the ACA.
That’s just something that comes with the territory of hourly work in most non-career jobs. Barring some exceptions for certain jobs such as Hospital orderlies or something similar. Margins are generally smaller and narrower. So every cent they save on hours benefits their bottom line.
The difference is that you used to be able to get 40 hours/week, or even a salary, even if it wasn't a career position and you didn't qualify for benefits. Now you still don't qualify for benefits PLUS you can't get 40 hours.