No, despite ‘break even’ as the new definition of ‘good,’ and the overall stagnation of the economy, this is a good report…
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 7.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, construction, and health care.
…if you’re a white guy.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for whites (6.8 percent) declined in February while the rates for adult men (7.1 percent), adult women (7.0 percent), teenagers (25.1 percent), blacks (13.8 percent), and Hispanics (9.6 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.1 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
If you’re not, well. I’d offer my sympathies, but I’m a white guy: you’d probably throw something at me, just in case I was being smug. Or ‘privileged,’ which is a term of art that can apparently change its definition without warning, and at random.
Moe Lane
PS: Labor participation rate at 63.5% percent; in layman’s terms, that translates as “the labor participation rate SUCKS.”
If only there were some way to boost employment. . . Maybe we could double down on new regulations and increased taxes by requiring selfish employers to hire 2 employees (at least 1 a minority or woman) to fill every 1 new job opening and increase payroll taxes on old positions that are only filled by 1 white, straight person. Seems foolproof to me.
Doesn’t matter. When the bill comes due in Europe (this will happen when the German people gives up on the rest of Europe), and trust me when I say this is only a question of when not if, then #DoomComesForUsAll and no one will be spared.
Sooooo…..? How long before those numbers are revised downwards?