Hooray! This past April has seen a big surge in the U.S. employment rate. According to the labor department there were an estimated 288,000 jobs that were created. In addition there were another 36,000 jobs that were created during the months of January and February that had not been accounted for. This has drove unemployment rates in the country down to 6.3%. This is the lowest it’s ever been in the last 5 ½-years. The labor department has released that the country is only 120,000 jobs shy of where it was prior to the “great recession.”
Unfortunately though just because there are more jobs available, it does not mean that they are good jobs. A lot of speculation circles around the idea that more people are willing to take low wage jobs or that they have just simply given up looking for work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 806,000 people dropped out of the labor force. This directly affects the percentage reported for current unemployment rates. And while businesses are hiring, it is in a hesitant manner as they are still timid about the future of the economy.
Overall the huge leap in employment is viewed as the economy moving in a positive direction. If more people can provide for themselves than they won’t need government assistance. This is the thought anyways. But if most of these jobs come with wages averaging around $7.25 then we can kiss that notion goodbye. Though the minimum wage bill recently failed in the senate we must rely on our lawmakers to strive for change. Without a change in minimum wage people who put in 40+ hour work weeks will still be living in poverty. The economy has been coming back around, it’s just not as fast as we all would like.
Comment Template