U.S. job growth picks up; desperate employers boost wages to attract workers

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said claims that enhanced benefits were discouraging jobseeking were not supported by what workers were telling him.

"Working people across America are eager to work," said Walsh in a statement. "But workers also told me about the challenges they and their families face, finding affordable childcare, caring for elderly parents and grandparents"

Given a choice, people would want to work for a living wage. Enhanced unemployment benefits or a UBI give people more choice and selectivity in job choice, driving wage growth. Job choice should not be a matter of desperation as a business model.

If I could not telework I would be in a real bind. We have an autistic 6yo and he needs supervision to get up, get on the school bus and after school. The pre-pandemic before and after school programs that allowed us to work nine to ten hour days on-site are not back in place yet. When school is out, someone has to be home to greet the bus. We only have one kid. I cannot imagine the trouble for families with two or three kids in school and especially single parents. If my employer told me Monday I had to return full time to the office I could not do it.

the only part that matters is in bold. the rest is the media making excuses for Biden failing to meet expectations, again.

Though the pickup in job growth shown in the Labor Department's closely watched employment report on Friday missed economists' forecasts, it gave assurance that the recovery from the pandemic recession remained on track.

I have little interest in working full-time ever again or fighting traffic more than a few days a month. As an independent consultant, I can pick the jobs most of the time and set expectations for deliveries based on the total work load. There is the hassle of b2b billing, taxes, and handling retirement and health insurance myself, but the control is really nice. Hourly pay is nice too, since the clients don't get billed when I'm not working for them.

Plus, most small and mid-sized clients don't need someone like me full-time. It is only the F-50 enterprises who do and they often have entire teams of Enterprise Technical Architects on the payroll dealing with hundreds of projects internal and external. Some last multiple years.

As an employee, I lose that control and usually get paid 50% less while being expected to work 60+ hrs/week for no extra pay.

Joe delivering as promised

Joe delivering as promised

Delivering what???

*The labor force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, fell to 61.6% from 61.7% in April. Men dropped out of the labor force last month, while 204,000 women returned.*

If the Blue States would stop handing FREE money period then most men will have no choice but to go back to work.

out of interest what would be the minimum hourly rate you would be willing to work for?

Nothing under $50 per hour.

After watching Trump crash the economy last year, it's good to see "Sleepy" Joe cleaning things up!

out of interest what would be the minimum hourly rate you would be willing to work for?

He walked away from the US. He made choice to leave his country for another. He has no stake in anything there but he sure has an opinion about everything so take those opinions for what they are worth.

After watching Trump crash the economy last year, it's good to see "Sleepy" Joe cleaning things up!

Ok folks, this is the economist in me speaking. The economic problems the US faced last year were not the sole creation of any President of their administration. States, counties and big cities made their own decisions to close or restrict particular kinds of businesses in response to a global pandemic. There was no national master plan to any of it and more often than not the President at the time fought against the states and cities that were restricting businesses hoping to slow the spread of the pandemic in their states. The Federal government cannot order states or cities to do or not do anything absent Congress passing laws and those laws surviving tests in court that either affirm their Constitutionality or refute it. Congress passed legislation to extend unemployment benefits hoping to keep cash in people's pockets so they could pay bills and not cause further damage to the economy. Only Congress can appropriate money, not the Executive Branch.

Likewise the decisions being made across the US to reduce pandemic restrictions are being made by states, counties and individual cities. President Biden is not directing any of this. The Federal government can offer assistance, encouragement and money but legally there is little a President on their own can do to create jobs. The states have to lift restrictions on businesses so they can resume operations, weighing these choices against the percentage of people in their state vaccinated and the direction the infection rate is going. The Federal government can offer free vaccines and has done so but as we see many are refusing to take them. And without a sufficient percentage of the population vaccinated full economic activity is not going to return to pre-pandemic levels.

It is a lot more complex and nuanced that "Joe did this" or "Trump failed". Accept the complexity and ambiguity and understand it. Too many people want black and white answers. The world does not work that way.

Nothing under $50 per hour.

Which means if he works 49 weeks per year out of 52 total, or 1960 hours per year, he would gross $98,000. That is a 92nd Percentile salary, meaning 92% of the US population makes less. Ask yourself if that is a reasonable expectation.

The economic problems the US faced last year were not the sole creation of any President of their administration. States, counties and big cities made their own decisions to close or restrict particular kinds of businesses in response to a global pandemic. There was no national master plan to any of it

Exactly. There was no national plan to any of it (never mind that the Obama administration left him one). A competent leader puts together a national plan. This is why countries that managed their pandemic effectively through a unified national plan didn't see their economies crash, while those that had disjointed 中途半端 responses did.

I don't know why so many people think that leaders are only elected for their ability to manage well in times of ease. Leading when there are no crises is straightforward, and the difference between leaders is generally just in policy (note: not exactly in modern America). It's the difference in response to crisis that qualifies a leader. A qualified leader in times of crisis is more important than one who leads slightly better than another in times of ease.

Trump was a leader when a crisis hit. He lacked an effective response, and the economy collapsed. As the leader of the nation, that result due to that lac of action puts this on him, no matter who wants to be an apologist and somehow try to somehow explain away the responsibility of the leader to stage an effective response to crisis in their nation's time of need.

In some parts of the US, $100K would be nearly poverty. In Jackson Mississippi, that would be sufficient to have an extremely good life, probably with a short commute and a little land. Could probably get an acre of land with a 5-bdr house.

We all make choices about where to live. Trade offs.

Nothing under $50 per hour.

If self-employed, that's more like $35/hr. The Govt comes for their cut every quarter and you have to buy health insurance and completely fund retirement on your own. In many industries, $125/hr is standard for independent contractors. The major consulting companies usually charge $250-$300/hr for the same people - plus expenses so they can fly home each weekend, stay in a hotel all week, rental car and eat. I've known many people working for those companies over the decades. Some worked the frequent flier programs to get the most benefits. That usually meant staying in the most costly hotel allowed and waiting to book flights until they were expensive.

Having in-demand skills with a BS degree means having control over your life, unlike regular people. Make sure your kids understand this fact. Their entire lives can be hard or comfortable based on those choices.

The Dems have had 4 years to criticize the Trump administration, and to come up with better ideas. Let's see them.