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U.S. Added 177,000 jobs in August, All of Them in the Service Industry
In portraying herself as a virtual Barack Obama third term, Clinton ties herself not only to a foreign policy that continues to inflame the Middle East, but also to his domestic economic record. A key element is job creation, the cornerstone of any real growth.
For example, during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton praised Obama’s efforts to steer the nation’s recovery.“Now, I don’t think President Obama and Vice President Biden get the credit they deserve for saving us from the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes,” she told the crowd in Philadelphia. “Nearly 15 million new private-sector jobs… And an auto industry that just had its best year ever.”
Leaving aside some fuzzy math to get to that tally of 15 million new jobs, Clinton purposefully passes off quantity with what we’ll call quality.
A quality job is one that is sustainable, with full-time status and benefits, the kind of work that both rebuilds America’s soul while at the same time makes work more profitable than unemployment benefits and aid. Most importantly for the greater economy, a quality job is one that allows the worker to put money into society. Rising tide lifting all boats.
The latest job statistics show that is not what is happening.
While the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the U.S. added some 177,000 jobs in August, all of them were in the low-paying service industry. Fast food, store clerks, that sort of thing. Basically Americans not making anything, but simply passing existing money around in some zero-sum game. A cashier earns a dollar which she turns over to the dry cleaner who later buys a Big Mac. At some point a corporation pulls that dollar out of the hands of its workers as “profit,” perhaps to offshore it to avoid taxes.
And if the job stats reporting only new service jobs were not dismal news enough, Bureau results show that in the same time period some 2,000 construction and 5,000 goods-producing jobs evaporated. In July, mining and logging companies dumped 7,000 positions. Those thousands of workers were thrown into the pool seeking employment.
No one is saying we should revive so-called dead industries, or that America revert fully to a 1950s style heavy iron economy. But economics is about people, and those people need jobs they can earn a living doing.
BONUS: Clinton’s solution? Hillary claims during her first 100 days in office she will launch “the biggest infrastructure and jobs program that we’ve had since World War II.” That mirrors the huge stimulus program that President Obama signed into law in 2009, during his own first 100 days in office.
Clinton’s plan would see $300 billion in spending on transportation projects spread over five years, $60 billion per year. She plans to raise the money via new taxes on the wealthy that Congress is highly unlikely to agree to.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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chuck said...
1A Livable Wage for Hillary is $200,000 an hour.
09/9/16 9:54 AM | Comment Link
Bruce said...
2Infra meanwhile all to be taken by Kaine’s 100 days’ ILLEGAL ALIEN AMNESTY Inducement to even more of the same! And who’ll Pay fer teh BUFFET? NOT the wealthy; yep, You GUE$$ED IT – teh Rest0fU$ ! : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6vsxUKryrg
$UCKA$ !!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l75ConAmnI0
09/9/16 2:23 PM | Comment Link
teri said...
3Clinton: “Now, I don’t think President Obama and Vice President Biden get the credit they deserve for saving us from the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes,” she told the crowd in Philadelphia. “Nearly 15 million new private-sector jobs… And an auto industry that just had its best year ever.”
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Actually, the US lost 9 million jobs between ’08 and ’10. From Jan. ’09 (when he took office) and Dec. ’15, the US had added only 9.3 million jobs. In other words, we barely replaced the lost jobs and came nowhere near meeting population growth. The jobs added this year still don’t add much to that “jobs created” number, and still haven’t kept up with population growth. Your “fuzzy math” link doesn’t get into this, Peter; it’s a link to a Salon article about ADP’s August ’16 new jobs report. I think the way Obama counts the jobs he has created – the fuzzy math – is by leaving off the first year and a half of his time in office. His administration claims that those months shouldn’t count since we were hemorrhaging jobs like crazy from the Great Recession and that wasn’t his fault, but inherited. Those losses through 2010 are counted against the Bush administration under this way of thinking, and Obama counts only from the time we finally started adding some [crappy] jobs.
The 177,000 jobs created number is from ADP for August. The BLS shows 151,000 for August. This is the first time I have seen ADP’s numbers higher than the BLS, but then I don’t check every single month. (ADP is a large payroll accounting firm.)
As far as the auto industry claim Clinton made, the auto industry HAS had a good year. Of course, it’s mostly built on subprime loans offered to at-risk borrowers by non-bank start-ups (which are usually, in turn, actually financed by Wall St banks and hedge funds hidden behind the scenes. These big bank guys are then bundling the auto loans into securitized debt obligations and credit default swaps, just like they did with the housing market just before the ’08 crash). The interest rates are onerous and car-buyers are starting to default en masse. Almost a third of current car loans are in this sub-prime category. The default rate is so pronounced that the WSJ has been calling attention to it as the precursor of an auto loan market crash. It won’t be as bad as the housing market crash, but it’ll sure inflict some hurt on the auto industry and car manufacturing. And maybe they’ll have to be bailed out again, along with the banks that are helping them build this pile of debt (and selling bullshit bundled CDOs to each other along the way). So, yeah, way to create your “best year ever”; build a recovery on a trillion dollar slush-pile of debt, a third of which is at risk of default by sub-prime borrowers.
We coulda broken up the big banks back in ’08…..
09/10/16 7:39 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
4” We need to win the majority of the Congress to make change, and win the Whitehouse”. What the hell did the D’s do in 08, and they then did squat for the people when they had the majority (the 1% and MICc $miled)
09/10/16 8:19 AM | Comment Link
bloodypitchfork said...
5teri said:
“We coulda broken up the big banks back in ’08…..”
We? Don’t make me laugh. The ONLY thing “The DUMBEST COUNTRY ON THE PLANET” does, is keep their dumb ass heads in the sand and keep PAYING INCOME TAXES for every corrupt politician, brainless dead end program, never ending wars and TRILLION $ DOD mindfuck military , and BILLION AND BILLIONS, to every corrupt regime on the planet, notwithstanding “rebuilding” nations we destroyed in the first place. No..”we” didn’t do a goddamed thing except keep paying.
What you should have said is..
WE coulda went on a INCOME TAX STRIKE. But noooooooooo.. the DCOTP is too fucking stupid.
So be it. At least “I’m” not contributing to the big lie anymore. Meanwhile, the election charade/theater keeps the DCOTP occupied while the .01% behind the curtain pulls the levers while LOL.
09/10/16 10:24 AM | Comment Link
chuck said...
6The media (MSM/tv) has not made as much as it hoped for from the Trump campaign. I paid taxes once in the past 7 years. I felt guilty supporting the 1%.
09/10/16 1:39 PM | Comment Link
Rich bauer said...
7Until the PEntagone can pass an audit, the entire management should be fired. God, Donald Trump said something I agree with…but he really doesn’t mean it.
09/10/16 6:37 PM | Comment Link