Economy adds 147K jobs, unemployment down to 4.1%

8 points by glimshe 2 days ago | 11 comments
  • toomuchtodo 2 days ago
    State and local govs soaking up workers (~70k). Good numbers assuming labor force stays balanced with retirements + deaths + job growth outpacing job destruction/loss.
    • taylodl 2 days ago
      How is it good numbers when they're not creating capital, in fact they're consuming capital? Government isn't an engine for economic growth and innovation. Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs are down - that's important because that's how you create capital. In essence, our ability to create capital has decreased while at the same time our demand for capital, in the form of taxes, has increased. This is not good.
      • Arnt 1 day ago
        Government isn't what?

        Government provides a large number of services, from education to firefighting. I can see why one might see education as a drain on the economy on any timescale up to a decade, but if you want to have an educated workforce in 30-50 years you can't really escape paying for education now, even if it is costly.

        Which of the services provided by government do you see as a net drain on the economy?

        • claudiulodro 1 day ago
          It's not nearly so black and white as you present it.

          A highway is government-created capital that generates economic growth. A library is government-created capital that generates innovation and economic growth. A fire station (which is also government-created capital) doesn't directly create economic growth or innovation, but it protects everyone's capital.

        • toomuchtodo 2 days ago
          Services provided by government enable civilization, capital growth and accumulation would enable what? Not much benefit to the citizenry based on the evidence. Manufacturing will continue to be automated as much as possible, further investment in manufacturing will not create material job count. Capital creation is a poor metric for potential and citizen quality of life. Jobs that enable people to survive are needed jobs to get them from working age to retirement age (or help them survive while in retirement until death).

          Growth is over due to demographics, folks should make peace with that, most especially capitalists. Inflation and taxes will eventually go up, and profits will go down.

          https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/dependency-and-dep...

          https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/spring/summer-2018/demogra...

          https://dunham.com/FA/Blog/Posts/demographics-are-destiny

          https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jesusfv/Slides_London.pdf

          https://www.suerf.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/f_fa99ccdbe...

          (demographics are destiny)

          • taylodl 2 days ago
            That's a different statement than claiming they are good numbers. We're shifting capital production to capital consumption. That's not a viable long-term strategy. Great, it solved their employment problem in June. Now what?
      • 2 days ago