Sunday, August 16, 2020

 Nonfarm Hires Jump 64.7 Percent from 4.656 Million in Mar 2020 to 7.670 Million in Jun 2020, Higher by 16.8 Percent Than 6.564 Million in Jun 2019 In the Global Recession, with Output in the US Reaching a High in Feb 2020 (https://www.nber.org/cycles.html), in the Lockdown of Economic Activity in the COVID-19 Event, Seventeen Million Fewer Full-Time Jobs Relative to Working Population in the COVID-19 Event, Recovery Without Hiring in the Lost Economic Cycle of the Global Recession with Economic Growth Underperforming Below Trend Worldwide, Youth Unemployment, Middle-Age Unemployment 190.6 Percent Higher in Jul 2020 Than in Jul 2007 In the Global Recession, with Output in the US Reaching a High in Feb 2020 (https://www.nber.org/cycles.html), in the Lockdown of Economic Activity in the COVID-19 Event, Increase of US Consumer Prices at Annual Equivalent 7.4 Percent in Jul 2020 with Inflation Worldwide, Growth of US Exports at 9.4 Percent in Jun 2020 and Imports at 4.7 Percent, World Cyclical Slow Growth, and Government Intervention in Globalization: Part II

 

Carlos M. Pelaez

 

© Carlos M. Pelaez, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020.

 

I Recovery without Hiring

IA1 Hiring Collapse

IA2 Labor Underutilization

            ICA3 Seventeen Million Fewer Full-time Jobs

IA4 Theory and Reality of Cyclical Slow Growth Not Secular Stagnation: Youth and Middle-Age Unemployment

IC United States Inflation

IC Long-term US Inflation

ID Current US Inflation

II United States International Trade

III World Financial Turbulence

IV Global Inflation

V World Economic Slowdown

VA United States

VB Japan

VC China

VD Euro Area

VE Germany

VF France

VG Italy

VH United Kingdom

VI Valuation of Risk Financial Assets

VII Economic Indicators

VIII Interest Rates

IX Conclusion

References

Appendixes

Appendix I The Great Inflation

IIIB Appendix on Safe Haven Currencies

IIIC Appendix on Fiscal Compact

IIID Appendix on European Central Bank Large Scale Lender of Last Resort

IIIG Appendix on Deficit Financing of Growth and the Debt Crisis

 

 

 

The magnitude of the stress in US labor markets is magnified by the increase in the civilian noninstitutional population of the United States from 231.958 million in Jul 2007 to 260.373 million in Jul 2020 or by 28.415 million (https://www.bls.gov/data/). The number with full-time jobs in Jul 2020 is 121.198 million, in the global recession, with output in the US reaching a high in Feb 2020 (https://www.nber.org/cycles.html), in the lockdown of economic activity in the COVID-19 event, which is lower by 2.021 million relative to the peak of 123.219 million in Jul 2007. The ratio of full-time jobs of 123.219 million in Jul 2007 to civilian noninstitutional population of 231.958 million was 53.1 percent. If that ratio had remained the same, there would be 138.258 million full-time jobs with population of 260.373 million in Jul 2020 (0.531 x 260.373) or 17.060 million fewer full-time jobs relative to actual 121.198 million. There appear to be around 17 million fewer full-time jobs in the US than before the global recession while population increased around 28 million. Mediocre GDP growth is the main culprit of the fractured US labor market augmented in the global recession, with output in the US reaching a high in Feb 2020 (https://www.nber.org/cycles.html), in the lockdown of economic activity in the COVID-19 event.

There is current interest in past theories of “secular stagnation.” Alvin H. Hansen (1939, 4, 7; see Hansen 1938, 1941; for an early critique see Simons 1942) argues:

 

“Not until the problem of full employment of our productive resources from the long-run, secular standpoint was upon us, were we compelled to give serious consideration to those factors and forces in our economy which tend to make business recoveries weak and anaemic (sic) and which tend to prolong and deepen the course of depressions. This is the essence of secular stagnation-sick recoveries which die in their infancy and depressions which feed on them-selves and leave a hard and seemingly immovable core of unemployment. Now the rate of population growth must necessarily play an important role in determining the character of the output; in other words, the com-position of the flow of final goods. Thus a rapidly growing population will demand a much larger per capita volume of new residential building construction than will a stationary population. A stationary population with its larger proportion of old people may perhaps demand more personal services; and the composition of consumer demand will have an important influence on the quantity of capital required. The demand for housing calls for large capital outlays, while the demand for personal services can be met without making large investment expenditures. It is therefore not unlikely that a shift from a rapidly growing population to a stationary or declining one may so alter the composition of the final flow of consumption goods that the ratio of capital to output as a whole will tend to decline.”

 

The argument that anemic population growth causes “secular stagnation” in the US (Hansen 1938, 1939, 1941) is as misplaced currently as in the late 1930s (for early dissent see Simons 1942). This is merely another case of theory without reality with dubious policy proposals.

Inferior performance of the US economy and labor markets, during cyclical slow growth not secular stagnation, is the critical current issue of analysis and policy design.

Chart I-20, US, Full-time Employed, Thousands, NSA, 2001-2020

Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://www.bls.gov/data/

Chart I-20A provides the noninstitutional civilian population of the United States from 2001 to 2020. There is clear trend of increase of the population while the number of full-time jobs collapsed after 2008 with insufficient recovery as shown in the preceding Chart I-20.

Chart I-20A, US, Noninstitutional Civilian Population, Thousands, 2001-2020

Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://www.bls.gov/data/

Chart I-20B provides number of full-time jobs in the US from 1968 to 2020. There were multiple recessions followed by expansions without contraction of full-time jobs and without recovery as during the period after 2008. The problem is specific of the current cycle and not secular.

Chart I-20B, US, Full-time Employed, Thousands, NSA, 1968-2020

Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://www.bls.gov/data/

Chart I-20C provides the noninstitutional civilian population of the United States from 1968 to 2019. Population expanded at a relatively constant rate of increase with the assurance of creation of full-time jobs that has been broken since 2008.

Chart I-20C, US, Noninstitutional Civilian Population, Thousands, 1968-2020

Sources: US Bureau of Labor Statistics

https://www.bls.gov/data/

 

 

© Carlos M. Pelaez, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020.


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