Bert Dirschell
Centertown
Dear Editor:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). There were 7.3 million jobs available on the last day in December 2018, a record high. 198,000 of the new job openings were in the private sector, 88,000 of them were in the construction industry. In the past three months an average of 241,000 new jobs have been added monthly, about twice as many as needed to keep up with population growth.
The latest BLS Employment Situation report said that 304,000 new jobs were created in January 2019. The unemployment rate did tick up to 4.0 percent, in part because more people are re-entering the work force.
Since March 2018 our “civilian non-institutional population” (persons 16 years of age and older who do not live in institutions and who are not in the military) has grown by 1.14 million while the number of employed has grown by 1.53 million. The “civilian labor force” (the combination of those employed plus those actively looking for a job) increased by 1.58 million.
With 7.3 million unfilled jobs, and hundreds of thousands of high paying “specialty” jobs filled by foreigners because the government tells us that there are no citizens with the skills to do those jobs, the U.S. is again the “Land of Opportunity.”
There is still work to be done. The Labor Force Participation Rate improved to 63.2. For comparison, from November 1988 to January 2004 the rate was above 66.0, from October 1996 to June 2000 it was 67.0 or higher.
What can we do to entice/force able-bodied people who “not in labor force,” and who are collecting taxpayer funded benefits, to take one these available jobs? The employment-population ratio increased to 60.7 last month. For comparison, from November 1997 to April 2001 it was at or above 64.0. If even 4 million of the current job openings were filled the Employment-population ratio would still only be 62.2. The 4 million who went to work would buy more stuff and lead to more jobs being available.