Shutterstock
Experts say that last week’s jobs report was not only good news for the declining unemployment rate, but also for the kinds of jobs that are being created nowadays. Higher paying jobs in areas such as professional services, construction and health care are now becoming more common.
For a while, the unemployment rate was creeping downward, but oftentimes it was because low-wage jobs, such as those in retail and food services, and people who just stopped looking after long and fruitless searches. Now we’re seeing more jobs that pay a living wage being added to the economy. Construction added 45,000 jobs, professional and business services added 62,000 jobs and health care added 226,000 jobs over the past six months, up more than 60,000 from the previous six months.
Meanwhile the number of retail jobs added was half of the previous three months, reports USA Today.
Some aren’t as optimistic about the jobs picture. From The Economist:
Do not be fooled by the latest jobs report. The American labour market is far from full strength. As Steve Blitz of ITG Investment Research, a consultancy, points out, the steady improvement in the employment-to-population ratio for 25-to-34-year-olds has stalled in recent months (at around 77%). Although the number of people who want to work full-time but can only find part-time jobs (the so-called “part-time for economic reasons” or “PTER”) has fallen, it remains much higher than before the recession hit. The same goes for “discouraged” workers, those who want a job but say that there is no point in looking.
Even USA Today published a story on Friday saying the opposite of what this cheerful, positive story says. “Without a vibrant consumer to buy their goods and services, U.S. companies are hesitant to invest in the future. As such, they don’t hire, and they don’t build,” writes Trish Regan, who goes on to say that the jobs created are low-paying ones.
Then, of course, we have an unemployment rate for Blacks that’s still nearly twice what the national average is. You can’t say the economy is on the positive path when a whole segment of the population isn’t working.
We have to consider that some of the things that seem to be going well may be the result of policies that artificially prop up the economy. For instance, there has been an economic stimulus plan in place that includes rock-bottom interest rates, put in place during the recession to spur growth. For a while now, Fed Chief Janet Yellen has threatened to put an end to those policies as the economy improves. But that move is consistently postponed.
“Friday’s April jobs report that suggested the economy still has some ways to go to meet the Fed’s criteria for beginning to raise interest rates. And that means more easy money for investors,” writes Business Insider. Yellen sees “market dangers” ahead, even as the economy continues to stop and start due to everything from labor protests to the weather.
In other words, we have to be specific when we look at the US economy and our own personal financing. Make your personal decisions wisely, whether it’s spending, saving or investing. There could be more waves of change ahead.
