https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/there-are-more-jobs-than-people-out-of-work.html

The jobs market has reached what should be some kind of inflection point: there are now more openings than there are workers.

April marked the second month in a row this historic event has occurred, and the gap is growing.

According to the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Surveyreleased Tuesday, there were just shy of 6.7 million open positions in April, the most recent month for which data are available. That represented an increase of 65,000 from March and is a record.


The number of vacancies is pulling well ahead of the number the Bureau of Labor Statistics counts as unemployed. This year is the first time the level of the unemployed exceeded the jobs available since the BLS started tracking JOLTS numbers in 2000.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/05/there-are-more-jobs-than-people-out-of-work.html

These kinds of reports are of dubious meaning because the devil is in the details. For years and years there have been tons of high paying, highly skilled jobs that employers have been unable to fill because of the shortage of qualified people, while there have been other job areas where there has been many people for a limited number of slots. I'm sure that both of those are true today, just that the balance has shifted around some. If the change is because there is a significant increase in job areas that previously had enough applicants but that now don't, then that's a potential sea change. But if the change is merely that more areas that couldn't fill open positions now have a lot more open and unfilled positions, then very little has changed. The actual situation, of course, is going to be a mix of both and, since this particular metric tells us nothing about what that mix is, there is nothing magical or particularly informative about it, especially based only on whether that ratio happens to be greater or lesser than one.

Still, the fact that the ratio is higher than it has been in many years (provided the ratio is using an apples-to-apples measure for counting open jobs and, particularly, active job seekers) is almost certainly a good sign.

 

If the ratio was going the other way I'm pretty sure that would be reported as bad news.

 

If the ratio was going the other way I'm pretty sure that would be reported as bad news.

Or, as a typical news item from the WP.

Choice quote:

Taken alone, these metrics mask the fact that some Americans are doing well and some are not.

Why the WP doesn't consider this statement a truism regardless of the economy is beyond me.

Would they be surprised that half of all Americans earn less money than the highest earning 50%?

 

A time for hope, and a time for reality. I found this essay quite interesting and thought provoking:

https://www.elitedaily.com/money/en...ime-for-hope-and-then-theres-time-for-reality

Because we are capable of picturing events of the future in our minds, we become slaves to the possibilities. Our lives become focused on what can be and not what is at the moment. We are cursed to live two steps ahead of ourselves and ahead of what is reality.

 

Would they be surprised that half of all Americans earn less money than the highest earning 50%?

I know your question is rhetorical but yes, they would. These are the people after all that breathlessly declared in 1992 that men and women might be born different.

 

...[they] breathlessly declared in 1992 that men and women might be born different.

My sister was born breech many years before that.

 

These are the people after all that breathlessly declared in 1992 that men and women might be born different.

Actually, I am surprised. I've never heard of a man or women born. Only infant children.

You learn something new here every day, I guess.

 

A time for hope, and a time for reality. I found this essay quite interesting and thought provoking:

Human beings are the both the luckiest and most cursed creatures on the planet. Not too many people consider the fact that, statistically speaking, the human race should not exist. The chance of us evolving into the beings that we are is slim to almost none at best. We are an anomaly; we are very lucky to be alive.

It sounds like me on a rant!
It threw me for a minute when I saw Hubbard.
I thought surely not L Ron?!!
Max.

 

It sounds like me on a rant!
It threw me for a minute when I saw Hubbard.
I thought surely not L Ron?!!
Max.

Good Lord... no! never Mr L Ron ...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-ballet-stage-daughter-gets-stage-fright.html

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-ballet-stage-daughter-gets-stage-fright.html

Makes me proud to be a dad.

 

Makes me proud to be a dad.

Oh, dads rock! ... but most mommies just won't admit it ...

 

My granddaughters are such hams it's all my daughter can do to contain it. They know their cute and more than happy to show the world.

I didn't know I had the Genetic Material to be a part of them, since I'm shy and look like the ruff side of a rock.

kv

 

Ghost town for sale.

I wish I had the money. What a neat property it would be to own.

 

Ghost town for sale.

I wish I had the money. What a neat property it would be to own.

There'a Cerro Gordo in Illinois, but this is not that!

This Cerro Gordo is halfway between Mt. Whitney and Death Valley, the highest and lowest places in California. Interesting.

 

Ghost town for sale.

I wish I had the money. What a neat property it would be to own.

Agreed -- and the price isn't at all bad, especially for California. I wonder if the mine is still accessible.

 

https://watch.opb.org/video/understanding-the-opioid-epidemic-oei0dd/

Understanding the Opioid Epidemic

 

https://watch.opb.org/video/understanding-the-opioid-epidemic-oei0dd/

Understanding the Opioid Epidemic

Reminds me of this classic, Hogarth's "Gin Lane" from 200 years ago. Not much has changed when it comes to human behavior regarding addiction.

 

Beer Street was so much better.