Jobs

Stock Market Down On Jobs

by

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down about 300 points right now because of a good jobs report. As the main character in one of my daughter’s shows says, “What the huh?” Jobs Good, Rates Rise? No one thing seems to move the stock market more regularly than the jobs report. As always, this new report is actually about last month. After all, it takes some time to collect and calculate the data. What makes this particular jobs report so important is its timing. The Federal Reserve Board is scheduled to meet in September. The Fed has expressed a willingness, if not a desire, to raise interest rates this year if the economy is doing well enough. Everything looked pretty good for a rate increase in September, but then the whole China market blowup thing happened and with it, the U.S. stock market took a hit, and the idea of a rate hike got a little more iffy. But, with a good jobs report, the rate hike is back on the table… maybe. You see, the jobs report was good, but not good enough to make this a no brainer. Jobs were created, but well below the 200,000 that would be …

Read More

States Still Not Recovered Jobs Lost In Recession

by

A researcher published some data showing how the individual states are doing recovering jobs lost during the recession. The highlight is that 15 states have not recovered all of the jobs lost during the recession. The interesting part is what that might mean. (Note: this is from total nonfarm employment and counts both part-time and full-time jobs) The 15 states that still haven’t recovered all the jobs lost during the recession are: Alabama Arizona Connecticut Illinois Maine Mississippi Missouri Nevada New Jersey New Mexico Ohio Rhode Island West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming If your life is all about politics, I’m sure you’re rushing to count Democrats and Republicans as a way to “prove” that your side is the best side. Sorry, but that shows little understanding of economics. But, if you insist, there are more Republican governors than Democrat governors on the list. Of course, to be fair, a lot of those states are the so-called purple ones. A more realistic analysis shows some obvious ones. Nevada and Arizona were the poster children of over-heated housing markets that collapsed, so it’s natural, they are one the list. On the other hand, Florida was hit pretty hard by the housing bubble but is not …

Read More

Jobs Looking Good for September

by

Every time a jobs report, or other important economic numbers, come out politician run screaming into newsrooms across the country to spin it so that it says what they want it to say. If you want to know what economic data really mean, ignore the politicians. On Wall Street, investors put their money where there mouth is. Spinning for an investor is the same thing as deliberately losing money. While a politician is more than happy to say something that isn’t true, no investor is willing to throw away their cash for the sake of appearances. September Jobs Report Is Good News The stock market is up 206 points as I write this. No matter what some politician says, this was good news. In some places, they are calling this the “Goldilocks” jobs report. It was not too hot, and not too cool. The economy added 248,000 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped below 6 percent to 5.9 percent. Wall Street wants job growth; they need job growth. An economic recovery can’t go anywhere with too many people unemployed. However, job growth can mean inflation, and no one wants inflation. More accurately, no one wants the Fed to worry about inflation and start …

Read More

Make Money Working From Home Online Scams

by

Virtually every one of the so-called work from home jobs is a scam. Keep in mind that while plenty of Americans work from home, they do it for their regular jobs that they already have, and they probably still have to go into the office some times. These people did not find an online ad and get a working from home job with no experience by just filling out some forms and information over the Internet. Just think it through for one minute. Doing something like data entry from home would be a great job, especially if you could get a job like that without any experience. That means TONS of people would want these jobs. If that is the case, then why would any business pay high wages for that, especially to someone with no experience? In fact, if you think about it for just one more second, you should end up with another conclusion. A job that can be done by anyone, from anywhere, without any extensive training, or previous experience is EXACTLY the kind of job that you can outsource overseas to someone making $5 a day. How could it possibly be that any company or business …

Read More

Why Raising Minimum Wage Doesn’t Hurt Anything

by
Minimum Wage Worker

Recently, several news outlets reported that Vermont is raising its minimum wage and will now become the state with the highest minimum wage in the nation. Seattle is looking to raise its minimum wage to nearly $15 per hour. Before these events dozens of states and cities had already raised their minimum wage above the federal minimum wage of  $7.25 per hour. The Colorado minimum wage is now $8.00 per hour and $4.98 per hour for “tipped” employees. This wage is indexed for inflation, so it will continue to rise as the economy expands. As is often the case, before any of these increases, opponents predicted doom, massive layoffs and closing businesses. In the case of various cities raising their minimum wage higher than the rest of the state, many opponent experts claimed that businesses would flee the cities raising wages. None of that ever happened. Why Higher Minimum Wage Doesn’t Affect Businesses The argument against minimum wage goes something like this: Businesses will flee to areas with lower minimum wages Businesses will fire workers or cut employee hours Businesses will raise prices The economy will suffer The fact is, however, that after all of these states and cities raised the minimum …

Read More

Job Numbers Good News or Bad News

by

On Friday, the US Department of Labor released the July non-farm payroll numbers. They showed that employment rose by 163,000 while the unemployment rate was basically the same at 8.3 percent. Of course, this is an election year, which means that within minutes, the airwaves were flooded with spin about how this was good news or bad news, depending upon your political persuasion. Truth in Money How do you tell if the July nonfarm payrolls data is good or bad? Among politicians, talk is cheap. There is no need to be accurate or correct, only to color the perception of the electorate in such a manner that you garner the majority of their votes. In other words, a politician, and their supporting ecosystem of political pundits and talk show hosts have no interest in what the jobs numbers, or other economic data, actually mean. How can you tell when a politician is lying? His lips are moving. In fact, many of them have only the barest of understanding as to what the data actually says. Instead, they have their experts comb through looking for what can be characterized as good or bad and then run with whichever one supports their …

Read More

April Jobs Report Could Have Big Impact On Stocks

by

The April jobs report is due out from the U.S. Labor Department on Friday. While economic statistics typically have a temporary effect on Wall Street before being shoved aside by whatever bit of news or data arrives a few days later, the April jobs number could be a bigger deal than usual. Recently, the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged. Following the announcement, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke held the first ever Fed press conference in which he laid out the Fed’s view of the U.S. economy. He suggested that the economic recovery is slowing. He didn’t use the word fragile, but plenty of people heard it anyway. He also suggested that inflation was tame and that any uptick was dwarfed by the greater potential for a slowdown in growth. Jobs Key to Economic Recovery Business spending has been measured, despite a tiny boom going on in Silicon Valley. Consumer spending has been whacked by not only by widespread job losses, but also by the housing market crash and subsequent collapse of the mortgage industry. Many homeowners have no equity left in their homes. Those that do are finding that terms for second mortgages are no better than the difficulties faced …

Read More

Exempt vs Nonexempt Employees

by

One topic that generates a lot of confusion in people’s personal finances is what is the difference between exempt and nonexempt employees? There are actually a lot of nuances and pages of labor law that deal with the difference between nonexempt and exempt employees. However, the practical implications of what it means to be an exempt employee or non exempt employee are pretty straight forward. Basically, it comes down to whether you have to be paid for overtime or whether you have to be paid the minimum wage. What Is An Exempt Employee The definition of exempt employee is one who is not subject to the minimum wage or overtime rules of the Fair Labor Standards Act, or FLSA. An FLSA exempt employee must fall into one of several categories to qualify as exempt. What determines exempt employee by labor law standards is what role the employee has in their job. A job title is not enough to make an employee exempt. There are several types of exempt employees including certain employees under age 20, employees of a motor carrier (drivers), and certain types of seasonal and farm workers. In addition, a broad category of salaried exempt employee allows certain …

Read More

Unemployment Report Bad News for 2011 Economy Recovery

by

The November jobs report came in worse than predicted. Recent reports suggesting that consumers were spending more money and that first-time unemployment claims were dropping suggested that the Great Recession might be coming to an end in 2010. Alas, the jobs report shatters that idea for the short-term. A recovery without new jobs isn’t worth the paper it’s statistics are printed on. Ongoing economic recovery requires that not just the people who are currently employed go back to spending and non-fear based economic decisions, but also that more people join their ranks. Unfortunately, that can’t happen if people are not returning to being employed. Smart money decisions will swing from taking advantage of low prices and low interest rates to saving cash. While increasing savings is good on a personal level, it isn’t necessarily good for the economy overall. The possibility that jobless benefits will begin to run out for millions of Americans only adds an additional weight to the overall economy. Put it together with States losing billions of dollars worth of Federal money from economic stimulus programs ending in 2011, and you have a lot of negatives pulling on the first quarter of 2011. The Federal Reserve’s recent …

Read More

Economy Outlook 2010 2nd Half – June Job Losses

by

Recent new that payrolls fell in June here in the U.S. is bad news for the economy, but maybe not as bad as it is being made out by the headlines. Let’s start with what the numbers are and move on to what they mean. As with all economic statistics, employment numbers are compiled from numerous sources which provide an inconsistent snapshot of job activity from around the country. These numbers are made usable by applying a consistent mathematical methodology to them. This results in numbers that may or may not be in any way accurate. What makes the statistics relevant and useful is that because they are always calculated in the same manner looking at the numbers relative to previous statistics is a valid way to analyze growth or contraction in employment. ….More about personal finance tips. Total Nonfarm Payroll US Department of Labor The “employment number” everyone is talking about today is specifically the total nonfarm payroll numbers and is based upon a combination of data gathered from surveying people (the household survey data) and surveying businesses (the establishment survey data). Much like the Nielsen ratings for television, the numbers gleaned from the surveys are then extrapolated to …

Read More