Talk of the economy tends to focus on two areas, unemployment and the stock market. The stock market has done well as corporate profits have based on current economic policies. In addition each month we are reminded of how the unemployment numbers are near record lows. The problem is that those statistics, while accurate are a bit misleading for many of us. The chart below reflects workforce participation in the labor market. As you can see following the great recession it dropped significantly This drop means millions of Americans are no longer looking for work, so they are not unemployed, but they aren't working.
Wages have also been largely stagnant over this period, not completely but not rising as much as they would if the jobs of today were the same as the jobs of the past.
If machinist jobs paying $30 an hour are eliminated and filled by robots but a low paying service job is created paying minimum wage, we see employment numbers unchanged but wages decreasing.
So are people better off than they were? Not as much as they should be, if at all.
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