Unemployment is rising, and CNBC is absolutely astonished:
Then again, CNBC thought recently that the silver lining of rising inflation was "higher salaries."
Weekly jobless claims unexpected moved higher last week despite hopes that the U.S. labor market is poised for a strong recovery heading into the fall.
Initial filings for unemployment insurance totaled 419,000 for the week ended July 17, well above the 350,000 Dow Jones estimate and more than the upwardly revised 368,000 from the previous period, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
What wonderful news!
I guess that economic recovery Joe Biden and company have been bragging about is just around the corner, right??
The news sent stock market futures off their highs for the morning, with Wall Street pointing to a slightly negative open. Government bond yields also edged lower. The jobless total was the highest weekly count since May 15 and came amid expectations that the jobs picture will improve markedly as enhanced unemployment benefits end and companies get more aggressive about filling vacant positions.
To control the narrative, other media outlets immediately tried to connect the uptick in unemployment to the super-duper scary Delta variant!
Alternatively, people are figuring out they can get paid to stay home.
I was at a restaurant the other day that apologized for the long wait and explained they were down 31 employees. They've had no problem hiring people, but those people quit two days later so they can re-qualify for unemployment benefits.
As the communists so aptly proved to us over the past century, people are really, really good at gaming the system when you pay them to be lazy!
Case in point:
Workers are still stalling the job search, and employers — from health care providers to trucking companies — are getting desperate.
Staggering stat: The share of job postings that use words like "hiring urgently" has spiked over 50% since the start of 2021, according to data from the jobs site Indeed.
There are certain industries in which the desperation is even more pronounced.
- Health care: 9.7% of personal care and home health care job postings are using terms like "urgent," and it's up to 6.6% for nursing jobs.
- Construction: 4.7% of postings mention urgency.
- Child care: 4.6% of postings mention urgency.
Employers are even offering perks like bonuses at higher rates. The share of job postings on Indeed with hiring incentives is at 4.3%, up from 1.8% in July 2020. Much of the increase has come in the last couple of months, says Indeed economist AnnElizabeth Konkel.
Oh well, I'm sure a few more trillion spent by Congress, a few more programs to disincentivize merit and hard work, and a few more platitudes about "equity" will definitely turn things around!
