'Where have all the workers gone?'
Another Friday and another mixed "jobs report":
"On Friday, the Labor Department reported that 720,000 Americans left the labor force. This exodus pushed the labor force participation rate down to 62.8%, the lowest level since 1978. One out of three adults in neither working nor actively looking for work."
At the same time, the "official" rate went up to 7.3% and 204,000 new jobs were created.
Let's be honest and cheer any kind of jobs growth. We are happy that "better than expected" jobs were created. Let's remember that these are fellow Americans not statistics.
However, this month's report suffers from the same disease as the ones before:
1) Where have all the workers gone? What are these people doing to make a living?
2) The economy is not creating enough jobs. We still have "growth" on the 5th anniversary of "the 2009 stimulus."
3) Higher premiums and policy cancellations due to ObamaCare will not help job creation either. Employers do not hire people when they feel uncertain about the economy.
The ObamaCare impact on the US economy may only be starting, as The Las Vegas Review Journal just reported:
"On Halloween, at Forbes.com, Avik Roy pointed out the far scarier truth: nearly 80 million Americans could be getting cancellation notices from their employer-based plans by next October, as those companies prepare for Obamacare's employer mandate to go into effect in January 2015. The plans - like Ms. Sundby's - have changed enough to no longer qualify for Obamacare's dubious "grandfather" clause."
Let me paraphrase Peter Paul & Mary?
Where have all of the workers gone? Gone to "under unemployment" everyone!
Or maybe "gone to pay higher premiums" everyone!
P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.