Categories
Quick Analysis

Middle Class Jobs Continue to Lag

Nonfarm payroll employment gains were 160,000 in April according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a drop of 40,000 from the prior three month average. Job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and financial activities, while mining employment continued to decline.

The reason for the decline in the U.S. economy and the continuing problem in the American balance of trade can be gleaned from delving into the areas that continue to be the weakest. Manufacturing employment changed little in April (+4,000), after losing 45,000 jobs over the prior 2 months. Mining employment continued to decline in April (-7,000). The industry has lost 191,000 jobs since a recent peak in September 2014. More than three-fourths of the job losses over this period have been in support activities for mining.

Middle income jobs are suffering. A jobs market that is based on health care, retail, and consulting services produces little that can be exported.

While the White House continues to tout an unemployment rate of 5%, the reality is far different.  The number is made artificially low by the declining number of Americans in the workforce (a four decade low) and it fails to reflect that a substantial number of jobs created are low-paying or part time positions that replace full time, lost middle income jobs. Additionally, a worrisome large number of the unemployed, 25.7%, have been unemployed for a prolonged period.

Among the employed, the number working part time for economic reasons, also referred to as involuntary part-time workers, was 6.0 million in April. This measure has shown little movement since November. (Involuntary part-time workers are those who would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find full-time work.)

Reuters reports that “Manufacturing’s job problem undercuts hopeful forecasts that U.S. companies would bring significant numbers of jobs back from overseas. That’s simply not happening to a degree sufficient to offset the continuing exodus of work and suggest deeper problems roiling factory floors…The slowdown in oil and gas has radiated deep into the economy and huge cuts by heavy equipment and farm machinery manufacturers are battering thousands of smaller suppliers across the industrial belt….the downturn has spread gloom across the U.S. industrial heartland…many Midwest manufacturers say they are as disillusioned with Washington’s view of the economy as their hourly workers.”
Learn more significant order cheap viagra points about this medicine then do not panic as you can refer the manual without any hesitation and doubts. The name of the following disorder that has shattered dreams of millions generic cialis from canada http://djpaulkom.tv/sim-djs-new-years-2012-mixes/ of men’s. Men, these days, take modern medicines buy viagra from india like Kamagra, Caverta, or Tadalis to overcome anxiety induced impotence. Men can have good relationships only if they keep their mates generic sildenafil india satisfied.
While manufacturing jobs had been declining for several decades, the dramatic downward slide can be traced to President Clinton’s allowing China off the hook from yearly reviews of its policies.

It is deeply frustrating that the current employment crisis in middle income jobs is not just  the temporary result of a cyclical downturn.  It is the direct result of the White House’s tax and environmental policies. Taxes for U.S. corporations are the highest in the developed world, which encourages companies to move their jobs overseas. The Obama Administration’s regulatory tidal wave, especially those designed to destroy the coal industry, have targeted not only a large number of jobs, but also some of the best paying middle income jobs in the economy.

CNS  notes that “Over the course of the 86 full months that President Barack Obama has completed serving in the White House—from February 2009 through March 2016–the U.S. Treasury has collected approximately $18,764,164,000,000 in tax revenues (in non-inflation-adjusted dollars), according to the Monthly Treasury Statements issued during that period…That equals approximately $124,003 for each of the 151,320,000 persons who, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, had either a full- or part-time job during March 2016. During the same 86-month stretch of the Obama presidency, the total debt of the federal government increased from $10,632,005,246,736.97 to $19,264,938,619,643.07, according to the Treasury. That is an increase in the debt of $8,632,933,372,906.10—or approximately $57,051 for each of the 151,320,000 people with jobs as of March.

HotAir reports that there is “visceral disgust” for Obama’s environmental policies in the Appalachian counties… West Virginia…energy costs are expected to go up 40 percent under Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), which sets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 32 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels. It’s a regulatory nightmare, a job killer, and a policy that Hillary Clinton plans to continue if she’s elected.”

Investors.com believes that Obama’s “policies have made it harder than ever for manufacturers to hire…New Environmental Protection Agency regulations to slash carbon emissions 30% by 2030 will have a devastating effect on factory jobs. A study by the Heritage Foundation found that this regulation by itself would cost each American $7,000 in income while killing 500,000 factory jobs and 45% of all coal-industry jobs. Then there’s the just-released ozone standards, also from the EPA’s job-killing policy shop. A study by NERA Economic Consulting for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) estimated a $140 billion hit to GDP and as many as 1.4 million jobs lost each year. Since Obama took office, thousands of new regulations have gone into effect. In 2012, regulation cost the U.S. economy about $2 trillion, or 12% of GDP. And manufacturers have been hit hardest. The average factory today spends $19,564 per worker to comply with regulations. For small manufacturers, it’s bigger: $34,671 per worker.”