Personal Economics 101

from Gary D. Halbert's "Between the Lines " President Joe Biden officially kicked off his 2024 re-election campaign in August, and he has been crisscrossing the country with campaign stops since then. His main re-election pitch is that the US economy is surging as a result of his economic policies. On that subject, the president repeatedly touts that the US economy has added almost  13.5 million new jobs  since he took office in January 2021. If true, that would be more jobs than created by any previous president over four years. The question is:  Is it true?  The answer is a little complicated but I’ll sort it out for you below. The fact is, nearly 13.5 million jobs have been gained since Mr. Biden took office. But what is critical to realize is that the vast majority of those new jobs were simply  businesses which shut down during Covid and are now reopening  – and calling back their laid-off workers. The issue when it comes to President Biden claiming he...

From the Committee to Unleash Prosperity The percentage of teenagers who are working in America is abysmally low. In the 1950s, almost half of teenagers were working. That work rate slid slightly in the 40 percent to 45 percent range when baby boomers and Gen Xers were teens in the 1970s, and 1980s. That labor force participation rate crashed with the spoiled generation – i.e., millennials – whose work rate as teenagers fell to as low as 28%. In other words, only a little more than half as many millennials worked as teens as previous generations. (Now in their late 20s and 30s, they are insisting on the right to “work” at home, or in offices with transgender bathrooms.) More recently, there has been a slight tick-up in teen work rates to one in three among Gen Z teens – but even this is a pitifully low rate. Why does this matter? Because almost every study on wages and career success shows that the earlier an individual starts to work and learn job skills, the higher their earnings and...

The survey of business establishments has shown steady growth in employment and the smaller survey of households has shown virtually no job growth since March. This pattern held again for the November jobs report released Friday. Employment was up in the establishment survey by 263k, but the household survey dropped 138k. The divergence since March now stands at an enormous 2.7 million jobs.One reason is double counting in the establishment survey, with over 900k of the jobs added in the last year being workers with second jobs, not additional people employed. To be sure, it is still a hot employment market for workers with some 10 million job openings. Count us as skeptical that this rosy jobs market will continue much longer. The economy is hemorrhaging full-time jobs – we’ve lost over 2,600 full-time jobs every day since May.