Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] On Those Questionable Jobs Numbers….Again!

2019-12-10 Thread Ralph Johansen via Marxism

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Great Employment Numbers: 44% of Fully Employed Make $18,000 a Year or Less
https://therealnews.com/stories/employment-numbers-fully-employed-low-pay-no-security


On 12/10/2019 8:14 AM, charles1848 wrote:
Doug Henwood skewered Rasmus' misunderstanding of Dept. of Labor 
unemployment stats. See

https://lbo-news.com/2019/05/06/misreading-the-latest-jobs-numbers/
and
https://lbo-news.com/2019/05/07/responding-to-rasmuss-response/


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Re: [Marxism] [pen-l] » On Those Questionable Jobs Numbers….Again!

2019-12-09 Thread Ralph Johansen via Marxism

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By Jack Rasmus.

It’s important that readers understand that the monthly jobs numbers 
don’t represent actual jobs. They are a statistic. That means the raw 
actual number of jobs are not what’s reported. It’s a statistical 
manipulation–based on a series of complex assumptions and even more 
complex mathematical formula adjustments of the raw jobs data–that gets 
reported monthly as the job numbers.


Moreover, the monthly numbers reflect jobs, not actual workers getting 
new employment. There may be workers adding second and third jobs, 
reflecting the jobs increase, but not actual new employment increase. 
The US Labor Dept. claims it captures added jobs by those already 
employed, but the numbers suggest its methodology may not be that 
accurate. The US labor markets have radically changed since the late 
1990s and the BLS methods may no longer be accurate for picking up 2nd 
and 3rd jobs. The changes also suggest that maybe the government’s 
statistical adjustments for seasonality are not that accurate any more.



full: 
https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/on-those-questionable-jobs-numbers-again/


More on the disfunctional economy - homelessness

The value of the wage must be reassessed when rents have grown at five 
times the wage rate in the last twenty years. We have a looming wage 
shortage, where working isn't working anymore. Moreover, with the 
developing trade war, the cushion to wages offered by cheaper imported 
goods is diminishing.


As one of of the barometers of a dysfunctional economy,one in every ten 
children in NYC public schools is homeless, and given the skewed 
distribution in our communities, that puts a plurality of whole 
classrooms in that bracket. As to the underlying issue of poverty, one 
is told that those who don't work don't want work. that it's culpable 
addiction, failing to take advantage of the opportunities for education. 
There is no mention that jobs don't pay a living wage, with wages 
off-shored or replaced by robots, or reshaped into independent 
contractual status with no assured minimum time employed and no 
benefits; there's no jobs program, Trump is blaming local governments 
for homelessness, andneither political party pushes this as a major issue.


You feel like a failure, you're either on the street or in a shelter or 
one paycheck away from it. Shelter is obviously no solution; it creates 
a stopgap and enables avoidance of the issue. Women, children and 
disabled people especially need not a shelter but a home, stable living 
space. Rental agencies don't want them: single parents are undependable 
rent-payers, children are vandals, a nuisance and extra expense, as are 
the disabled.


The right to a home is basic, intrinsic to a humane society.

So we put a billionaire real estate mogul in charge, and another one, a 
declared real estate development advocate, throwing vast funds into 
overcoming a Democratic Party candidate deadlock and replacing him.

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