Virtually all the employment gains in the recovery have been full-time.

[Blue_Adept]

Your monthly reminder: Virtually all the employment gains in the recovery have been full-time.

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And full-time employment at last well above prerecession level.

[img][/img]

Remember that stall in prime-age employment rates? It's gone now.

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https://twitter.com/bencasselman

Chief economics writer for @fivethirtyeight.

[stevenleser]

1. Excellent post and excellent job President Obama!

[Blue_Adept]

2. Good news sinks like a rock though.

They tend to be too heavy for people to throw at each for their agendas.

[stevenleser]

3. Yep. This destroys an argument a certain crowd likes to use. They wont like it. Hence...

as you said, sink like a stone.

[Ford_Prefect]

4. Gee you'd think to look at this chart that no one is working more than one job.

In a year that just ended with historically high earnings personal income levels were essentially static below the corporate manager level. At age 63 I cannot get an interview let alone even part-time work I am qualified for. The people working in my field are paid 1/2 what they were before the "crash" and are mostly working to contract rather than genuine (benefits, vacation time, insurance and retirement) full time for customers who have long term needs. Much of the work we did has been off-shored as well, to people who may be technically qualified but have no insight into the work culture and environment of the customers.

So while the charts look good it they only tell part of the story. Yes, there have been real improvements for parts of the economy. Yes, the President deserves some credit for the improvement. However we are such a long way from where we were or yet need to be. Its like a leaky boat in bad weather. The leaks have been stopped for now and we have actually bailed much of the water out to the point where we are not sinking and can maneuver the boat. 1/2 the passengers now have dry feet. However we are a long way from shore in conditions that could easily restart the leaks. The other 1/2 of the passengers are still soaking wet and desperately need dry clothes and food, but the crew doesn't see them because they are still trapped below decks. And to add to potential misery the radar shows a serious and growing storm approaching beyond the horizon.

That's what is going on that the numbers don't make clear. Like it or not Mark Twain made the point, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." I don't believe we are doomed but I do think we are often lied to. If my neighbor has a new car to haul his young family to school in I am glad that he has the good fortune to be needed and paid enough. If my other neighbor, a teacher, has a house she can no longer pay for and a mother who cannot afford nursing home care I have to say I wish the legislators who want to destroy the ACA and who MUST pay yet more Military budget for useless aircraft and so-called intelligence systems should spend a week under her roof.

To those of you who are comfortable with the way things are I wish you all the good luck you will need to keep it that way. We who are not so comfortable have other needs that you cannot see. Please have the civil courtesy to look before you leap over us on your way to victory. It is not polite to step on those less fortunate on your way to the mall.

[stevenleser]

5. For that argument to work, you would have to be able to compare that to pre-Recession numbers of

people working more than one job.

Otherwise its an assertion/accusation without backup, which it is.

[Ford_Prefect]

7. You have ignored the reality that most people now employed are making far less than those

similarly employed before the"fall". Your judgement about who's working more than one job holds no water at all since the chart doesn't account for it, only the number of part-time employees declared.

You appear to be insisting on living in a fantasy. If that makes you more comfortable please enjoy yourself. But please do not presume to talk down to those of us still struggling with a much less than half full glass.

[stevenleser]

8. If I am you haven't proved it at all. Making assumptions to attack Obama doesn't make your case. nt

[Ford_Prefect]

9. I haven't attacked the President. No. I gave him credit. I accuse Congress and have done before.

[stevenleser]

10. Then give him the credit of providing links to back up your assertion that his recovery contains

more full time workers working more than one job than did so before the recession.

[Ford_Prefect]

11. Again you miss read my remarks. There remain many people who must work multiple PART-Time jobs.

I gave the President credit. I have accused a Congress bitterly opposed to anything the President has proposed or enacted on his own authority to the betterment of us all.

I have not said things are not better, or that the President is to blame that they are not improved enough for my own and my neighbor's needs. I said that while the charts are true they don't cover the whole truth. The President is only responsible for his part of that truth. While I do disagree with him on certain matters I respect greatly the effort he has made and the distance he has brought us from where he and we began.

[spanone]

6. k&R...