Mar
24
Blog Post #10 Andrew Chen
March 24, 2015 | Leave a Comment
The New York Times article, just written six months ago, details the lack of employment among workers in their prime working years. Nearly three million workers has disappeared, due to retirement of baby boomers and others just flat-out quitting to return to the workforce. Not only did the number of jobs created decrease, but also the rate at which wages increased, decreased as well. This really says something about the U.S. economy, as participation rates for labor has dropped to 62.8 (in Aug. 2014), the lowest since the late 1970s. Perhaps it’s time for the federal government to start stepping it up to actively tackle the unemployment problem.
One such way would be to encourage the discouraged to come back and work full-time again, like the efforts Express Employment Professionals is taking. Though Obamacare created about 43,000 open positions, the factory sector remained unchanged, and the retail sector shrunk a bit. Because of the growing differences in skilled professionals and unskilled labor, inequality gaps, income gaps, and wage gaps continue to be prevalent.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research article backs up the statement that states who increased the minimum wage created more jobs in 2014, than those states who didn’t raise the minimum wage. It is also important to keep in mind that correlation does not equal causality, but there is evidence that goes against the argument that raising the minimum wage will provide negative effects. A chart that displays the percentage change in employment by state, filtered by the states who raised the minimum wage, and those who didn’t. However, it’s important to note that twelve of the thirteen states saw employment gains, but those states who did not have the minimum wage increase were also pretty prevalent towards the top of the chart.
Again, as stated before, it’s hard to argue against these numbers as we have no data and numbers of our own. I feel it’s a little too positive to firmly state that because the experience of the thirteen states that increased their minimum wage saw improvements, that a nationwide increase will better the unemployment problem. Though there are increases in the given trend, employment is only barely rising. Sure, it’s increasing, but at what cost? How long will it take to lower the unemployment rate to an insignificant amount, and what can the government do to encourage the discouraged to come back to work?
From The United States Conference of Mayors, the article found that new jobs after the Great Recession are paying significantly less than the jobs lost during the recession. As wage gap widens, income inequality will continue to increase down the line. If nothing is corrected, “income inequality will persist in the coming years as it is a structural feature of the 21st Century economy.” For income inequality to be known as a “structural feature” says quite a lot about the rise of capitalism in the United States. It’s only up to the people to advocate their beliefs and struggles, for the majority to speak their mind and offer ideas as to how to relieve the growing issue.
