Thursdays

Trivia nights at the Back Door bar in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan used to be my Thursday high point. That was more than 20 years ago. When I think about it I can picture my boozy but very bright friends. We'd go to the bar for trivia, win the contest and its $25 prize and then drink it all back, laughing and joking, and dancing with pretty girls.


Good times.


Now Thursday means the release of the BLS's weekly first-time claims for unemployment report and not much more.


Today, June 9, 2016, the unemployment claims fell by 6000. That positive weekly rate follows last week's alarmingly petite U.S. jobs report.


What does it mean? I don't know. But something is amiss.


My teen daughter has been looking for work at some local outlets and malls. She has talked to store employees and they are mad. The retailers work them past their expected hours and won't give them the flexible time they need, but were told they'd get. One former Nike store employee, a friend of my daughter's, told of requesting two weeks off in July. They asked for the time in the preceding November, eight months earlier. When the vacation time approached, the manager told the young man that he couldn't have the time off because "we have a business to run." Understandably the 16-year old quit. How could the store be so thinly staffed? Hmm.

A different store employee receiving my daughter's application said "Finally!" Again, the employee told my girl that work conditions were demanding and difficult, hardly worth the minimum wage pay. Nobody wanted a job there.


Maybe the latest government reports can be explained by these anecdotes. Workers are only able to get low paying, slave-like jobs because they are the only kinds of jobs available. As sick as they are of their jobs, they don't quit or risk them because there is no better work to have.


That explains the low unemployment claims report. On the other hand, because the available jobs treat employees poorly, and pay barely more than unemployment or welfare, there are few employees willing to take them. That explains the miniscule jobs report and the low, low labor force participation rate.


Unless pay increases, or employers find a way to make the jobs they have more desirable, these conditions aren't going to change.


Happy Thursday.