Labor

Submitted by Mish Shedlock of MishTalk

The BLS JOLTS (Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover) report came out today.

The BLS claims jobs openings are up. Based on an alternate reports, I suggest opening are not only down, but falling steeply.

The implications are huge, so let’s dive into the discrepancies.

BLS: Job Openings vs. Hires

That’s how the BLS sees things. Before we dive into the alternate view, let’s take a peek at mainstream media analysis.

Mainstream JOLTS Comments

As former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi so eloquently explained not long ago, raising the minimum wage would wipe out thousands of entry level jobs for those who don't have very many other options.

Washington, DC is validation of Rensi's theory. According to a report from the Employment Policies Institute, nearly half of Washington, DC employers said they have either laid off employees or reduced the hours of employees to adapt to the District of Columbia's minimum wage hikes since 2014.

After last Friday's disastrous jobs report and concurrent prior revisions, few were expecting any remarkable developments from "Yellen's favorite labor market indicator", the BLS' JOLTS, or Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and yet there were two surprises.

First, when it comes to actual job openings, the number rose from a downward revised 5.675MM to 5.788MM, which meant the job opening rate remained flat at 3.9%, even if the actual number of job opening just matched the all time high of last July.

We have covered the complete disaster that is Obamacare in great detail recently, from premiums skyrocketing in 2017, to the largest US Health Insurer throwing in the towel on Obamacare exchanges, and even Insurance companies suing the government over subsidies the government promised if the firms lost money as a result of being in the exchange.

Across the United States, some residents have to pay far more state and local tax than others. The amount you pay depends heavily on the state you reside in with New Yorkers suffering under the heaviest tax burden according to website Wallethub.

As Statista details,  the tax burden measures the percentage of a person’s income which goes towards state and local tax, different to the tax rate, which depends heavily on income and personal circumstances.