Teen Unemployment

The WSJ opinion piece pushes the view that the increase in the minimum wage is responsible for the increase in teen unemployment.

[WSJ - The Jobless Summer]

The Conversable Economist argues that the minimum wages may have something to do with it but its effect is minor at best.

[Conversable Economist - The Decade-Long Rise in Teen Summer Unemployment]

Of course, when they gut social security and medicare, there will be another jump in teen unemployment because there will be a flood of starving old people taking the traditional teen fast-food jobs.

tnb

Business vs The People

Business vs The People

... But as all businesses become more footloose, they have less incentive to support public spending on education, health, human services or social safety nets, including unemployment insurance.

Unneeded as workers, the unemployed also become superfluous as consumers and burdensome as citizens. Cutting unemployment benefits (as was just accomplished in Michigan and is well under way in Florida) becomes just another means of cutting losses. ...

This is what happens when you have a government that favors business over the people.

tnb

Comparing State Unemployment

Found here: Geography, Unemployment, and Senators - Grasping Reality with Eight Tentacles

It's hard to find any one economic, tax or political ideology outperforming any other from this map. High tax vs Low Tax, Tightly regulated vs limited regulations, democrat vs republican, its not good anywhere really.

tnb

Employers can't find Workers?

A good analysis of a MSM article.

Why is the Journal Mystified that Some Employers Are Having Trouble Finding Workers? « naked capitalism

Unemployment

From Martin Ford: Unemployment: The Economists Just Don't Get It

.... which is that advancing technology is the primary culprit. I've been arguing that as machines and software become more capable, they are beginning to match the capabilities of the average worker. In other words, as technology advances, a larger and larger fraction of the population will essentially become unemployable.

and then from The Booman Tribune

Retail salespersons and cashiers had employment levels of 4.2 and 3.4 million, respectively; these two occupations combined represented almost 7 percent of total employment in the private sector. The third largest private sector occupation, combined food preparation and serving workers, with employment of 2.5 million, accounted for slightly more than 2 percent of total employment in the private sector.

And from TNB....

When technology takes over serving at fast food chains and cashiering, we're really in trouble.