Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernstein
Jared Bernsteinis a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the Chief Economist and Economic Adviser to Vice President Joseph Biden in the Obama Administration. Bernstein's appointment was considered to represent a progressive perspective and "to provide a strong advocate for workers"...
fewer force labor lead looking lower negative people reason ticked
This is a pretty negative report. The reason unemployment ticked down is the labor force contracted. That suggests fewer people are getting into the game, looking for work, and that kind of discouragement can lead to a lower unemployment rate.
based change good month negative swing
One good month based on a swing in the C.P.I. does nothing to change this negative trajectory.
boost looking negative optimists pause report reverse second stronger trends
This report may give pause to some of the optimists looking for a stronger second half, ... We need a real boost if we're going to reverse some of these trends that are even more negative than we thought they were.
claims history katrina largest looking month negative next shown
Clearly, Katrina hasn't shown up in the jobless claims yet, but it will, ... Next month, we're going to be looking at one of the largest one month negative spikes in the history of this series, going back to the '30s.
again cautious close employers period turning warrants whether
Whether we're into another period now where employers are turning really cautious again ... warrants close observation,
peak somewhere ultimately
Ultimately unemployment will peak somewhere around 6.2 or 6.3 percent,
bottom children decent giving growth harder income lifting people poverty start themselves time top
When income growth is concentrated at the top of the income scale, the people at the bottom have a much harder time lifting themselves out of poverty and giving their children a decent start in life.
wages trends slumps
We are in the midst of a protracted wage slump, ... a troubling trend that is largely going unnoticed by policymakers.
mistake thinking growth
It's a mistake to think that any increase in wages is inflationary and there is substantial room for non-inflationary wage growth, particularly at the bottom end of the scale.
strong wages way
With stagnant hourly wages, the only way for working families to get ahead is by working more hours, ... certainly not the path to improving living standards that we'd expect in an economy posting strong productivity gains.
school play competition
Where you see immigration competition play out most clearly is among high school dropouts. I'd say there's clearly immigrant competition among the least-skilled workers, but natives are a shrinking share while immigrants are a growing share.
government should high-road
The government should be actively enforcing the high road.
employment situation
The full employment situation reinforces itself.
running insecurity lines
The bottom line is that it's better to run a workforce on security than insecurity.