I am sure President Trump is full of glee at another outstanding jobs report.
For the month of January, more than 225,000 people were added to payrolls. At the same time, we saw the unemployment rate climb, a positive sign since more people entered the job market. This is viewed as a positive for the economy going forward.
Having a expanding job market is obviously better than one that is contracting. However, all is not as rosy as it is made out to be.
Here is a breakdown of where the jobs were created. This is pretty standard of where they were for the last couple years. Education, Healthcare, and Construction are the categories where we see growth.
The challenge with much of this is that the jobs are not great ones. Construction is the exception since it does provide many quality blue collar jobs with decent pay. As long as the economy stays positive, this should continue. The challenge is that housing is cyclical. This means that the next slowdown will see these numbers reverse, and quickly.
Healthcare is an area that one would think is an epicenter of great jobs. After all, there are doctors and nurses who make good money. At the same time, there are plenty of 6 figure administrators in the field.
While all this is true, much of the growth is not in those areas. Instead, we are seeing the home healthy worker as the fastest growing segment. With an aging population who is still at home, affordability is a problem. Hence, people opt to have a healthcare worker come in for a few hours each day.
The challenge here is that most of these people are not very well paid. Couple that with medical office staffs who are making not much more than minimum wage and we can see how this is not a very stable environment for employment.
Education is equally as misleading. This is a broad spectrum covering not only the entire educational years but also many jobs. Walk around a college campus and see how many people there are making actual money. The college professors are as well as the upper end administration. However, when you go through the cafeteria, bookstore, maintenance, security, and department administration, you realize that there is not a ton of money being paid. It gets even worse the lower down the educational scale one goes.
It is sad to see how many are enslaved by this system. The Job Loop is ever present meaning the cycle is never broken. People are required to keep working while they, for the most part, are falling further behind.
The raw numbers look good but, make no mistake, things are not groovy for most Americans. It is a struggle that is only getting worse. Wall Street is in full control meaning the goal of business is to maximize profits. This is the mandate that every CEO operates under.
So while the likes of President Trump, Jim Cramer, and other Wall Street cronies jump for joy, the story around most family dining tables is not that rosy.
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