A lot of time has been spent of late discussing the apparent "labor shortage" in the U.S. economy. In fact, just this morning, the Wall Street Journal ran an alarming headline alleging that the market for "skilled labor" has become so tight that housing companies across the nation are having to recruit convicted felons in order to keep up with building demands.
This morning, Goldman's Econ team, led by Jan Hatzius, set out to identify why wage growth has been elusive despite the fact that unemployment rates and other labor utilization measures signal an economy at full employment. For evidence of labor market 'slack' they decided to take a look at how recessionary college graduates handled the post-recession labor market as their lack of skills often make them the most vulnerable to a weak job market.
Authored by Adam Andrzejewski via Forbes.com,
The 'Big Dogs' of local government in Illinois.
Illinois is broke and continues to flirt with junk bond status. But the state’s financial woes aren’t stopping 63,000 government employees from bringing home six-figure salaries and higher.
Authored by Andrew Syrios via The Mises Institute,
In what has become a running joke amongst those skeptical of the claim that minimum wage increases have no effect on unemployment, a recent report by the Employment Policies Institute showed that 174 of the 184 co-sponsors of a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour hired unpaid interns.
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
Cook County Illinois has the largest population loss of any county in the nation. Chicago represents just over half of the population of Cook County.
Here is a graph I put together of the “Great Escape” from Illinois.
Highlights