FROM THE EDITOR
Dear
Friends
Colleagues:
&
The latest jobs report released on June 1st indicates that U.S. Job Growth is robust and that the Unemployment Rates have fallen to 3.8%. If so many people are working, then why are their hordes of homeless people roaming the streets of every city and town in America?
The truth about the Jobs Reports can only be discerned if we take a hard look at what is not reported. For example, The New York Times reported that “The labor force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, fell to 62.7 percent last month from 62.8 percent in April. It has declined for three straight months.” There is also a much higher percentage of males, particularly white males, who are not in the work force. There is a large number of people who want to work, but can’t get hired and have given up searching. There is also a strong segment of workforce participants who can’t get full-time employment and work part-time.
The future of technology, automation, robotics and artificial intelligence is paving the way for the end of the labor force as we know it today. There is mounting evidence that paid labor will no longer exist. The young who will inherit the world economy are ill prepared to implement the training and education that is needed to create the new workforce in the Twenty-First Century. The current political leaderships will not address the changes in the labor force that are imminent, and instead is intentionally serving the profit motives of those who are at the very top.
Bottom line: the economy is better for some, but not good for most.
Patricia Vaccarino