In 2020, the number of people who did not have access to adequate food increased as much in one year as it had in the past five years combined.

֎ The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that median weekly earnings of the nation’s 113.6 million full-time wage and salary workers were $990 in the second quarter of 2021. This was 1.2 percent lower than a year earlier, compared with a gain of 4.8 percent in the Consumer Price Index for all consumers over the same period. Inflation rose by 5 percent.

[Mariner notes that wages did not keep up either with the Consumer Price Index (how much food and purchases cost) or the rate of inflation (a lack of unions and more generally, the effects of Reaganomics)]

֎ Over the past three months, the economy has added an average of 832,000 jobs per month – the fastest job growth since August 2020. That’s a sign that economic confidence is returning, even as concerns about the pandemic continue.

֎ The unemployment rate dropped 0.5 percentage points in July. Sometimes a drop occurs because people give up looking for jobs but the Federal government reports that the labor force participation rate and employment-to-population ratio are both up. That suggests people are looking for work and finding jobs.

֎ Statistics suggest employment has recovered 75% of jobs lost in 2020.

֎ Despite the fact that the number of unemployed people fell by 782,000 to 8.7 million in July, long-term unemployment is still far too high. More than 3 million people have been out of work for at least 27 weeks, with 2.5 million of those out of work for 52 weeks or more. Black workers are over represented in this population.

Ancient Mariner