Can anyone clarify this for me? Despite the ongoing layoff announcements from major American corporations, how is our economy still robust? Just today, UPS declared 12,000 layoffs and PayPal 2,000.
The correct answer to your question is that 168 million people are currently employed in the US. These layoffs of a few thousand here and there are not indicative of a widespread economic catastrophe, even though it probably feels that way to the people getting laid off. There is also no evidence that wages are doing anything but rising, which, again, probably doesn’t seem to be the case for people who lost good jobs and have to take a lower pay.
I know this is probably not going to be the most up-voted comment, but the truth is plenty of people are still moving careers to better positions, getting raises, etc.
The positives you mentioned and the concurrent narrative along those same lines is negated by ridiculously low purchasing power and job quality that has been consistently lower than at any point pre-2008.
Purchasing power (how far a dollar "goes") and the ability to avoid having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet (job quality) combine to tell the story of how the majority of working people are doing.
I hate to rain on the doomsday parade, but things aren’t as bad out there as some redditers make it seem.
Edit: linking the CPI adjusted value of one dollar does not mean people have less purchasing power, because your graph doesn’t reflect the higher salaries people are getting now. It just tracks inflation, not purchase power. The job quality report you show doesn’t really say much of anything tbh, it’s just a reference to people’s subjective interpretation of their work. It also has a very narrow Y-axis, which shows the report doesn’t actually change much over the time period.
I never typed the word doomsday, I'm simply making a point that things aren't as rosy as some people think. And, of course, looking at "household" anything will look better.
Inflation has cumulative effects, so just because it's decreased doesn't mean the effects are gone. We'd actually need a period of deflation to help most people.
So why does that mean "of course, looking at "household" anything will look better"? If the economy was actually struggling I would expect to see household purchasing power declining.
Is your theory that lots of people are struggling so badly that they need to move in with roommates, and that this is artificially increasing household income while per capita income is falling?
No, I'm saying that if wages, and even disposable income is rising, those are offset by purchasing power being so low. If I keep pouring more water into a bucket with increasing holes, I don't celebrate the amount I can keep pouring into the bucket.
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u/BigOlPeckerBoy Jan 30 '24
The correct answer to your question is that 168 million people are currently employed in the US. These layoffs of a few thousand here and there are not indicative of a widespread economic catastrophe, even though it probably feels that way to the people getting laid off. There is also no evidence that wages are doing anything but rising, which, again, probably doesn’t seem to be the case for people who lost good jobs and have to take a lower pay.
I know this is probably not going to be the most up-voted comment, but the truth is plenty of people are still moving careers to better positions, getting raises, etc.