Episode 8
The Ugly Truth About the Current Unemployment Rate
Hello, and welcome to another episode of Nutrition is the Key to Health, where I talk about nutrition, health, and everything in between.
The unemployment numbers were released today and came in even lower than expected. Of course, President Biden is taking his victory lap, as any president in the Oval Office would. But, I am going to give my opinion as to why these numbers are skewed and actually higher than being reported.
Disclaimer, I am not a physician, nurse, registered dietician, physical therapist, or mental health professional. This is my story and what I have done and learned over the course of my journey. If you plan to start a diet or exercise program, please get approval from your doctor.
Okay, let’s jump into it.
The unemployment rate is one of the most watched market indicators for forecasters and economists. They use this to calculate the “environmental risks” if you will, to the broader US economy.
It shows an extremely strong inverse relationship to the health of the American economy. When the unemployment rate is down, investors increase and move forward with investments, and everyone is happy. When it is high, investors may dump or hold causing markets to stall or tighten.
As a recently unemployed individual, I wanted to know just how the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculated the unemployment rate. I am seeing a much different view from my reality, than what is being portrayed from our government and in the media.
Unemployment is measured through the current census, but wait Alicia, that only occurs every 10 years. You are so right. So, the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses what they call the “Current Population Survey”.
What is this you ask? Well, they allegedly survey 60,000 households every month. I say allegedly, because I have lived in the United States for 721 months of my life, and I have never received a survey like this that I ever recall.
There are an estimated 335M people in America and the fact that they survey 60,000 households seems like an extremely small sample size. Does it not to you? Also, the fact that they “cherry-pick” who they are going to include in the results is so unsettling, as they manipulate the numbers.
What do they ask in this survey? The survey consists of 3 questions, and it only includes American citizens.
1. Are you gainfully employed?
2. Are you unemployed and looking for work?
3. Are you unemployed and have given up on finding a job to support yourself?
If someone answers yes to #3, they are not counted in the population survey. But wait, they are still unemployed, this is not even an accurate indicator to omit these numbers, yet they do it each and every month.
This is only one way the numbers in which the numbers are skewed to favor the governmental reporting and is a major criticism of the formula on which they used to base the unemployment rates in America.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, March added 303,000 new jobs.
The categories for these jobs were:
1. 72, 000 jobs were created in service-related industries like healthcare, long-term care facilities, and retirement communities to care for the aging boomer population.
I believe I am considered the last year of the boomers, and I am so tired of hearing how the boomer population has become a huge burden to America.
We weren’t a burden when we were working every day and funding social security, and Medicaid systems. Now, that we are trying to use the services we paid all our lives for, it is our fault for living too long. Well, shame on us!
2. 71,000 jobs were created by local and state governments. If I had to guess, that was replacing the retiring fire, police, and teachers who were stepping away or retiring from their field. So, if you are back-filling a vacancy from a retirement, is that really a job that was created? Not in my book. That is a back-fill. This should be red-flag number 2.
3. 49,000 jobs were created in the leisure and hospitality industries including restaurants. I am certain that 98% of these jobs are part-time jobs with no benefits. The work for a small rate of pay which is a fraction of our minimum wage standard of $7.15 per hour. When I waited tables $2.01then you had to declare tips, so you were double taxed. So, you are literally working for tips.
4. 18,000 jobs were created in the retail industry. These are also p/t jobs with no benefits. Brick and mortar retailers cannot afford to pay an employee benefits, so they hire multiple p/t employees and never let them reach their hours.
Manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, IT professionals, and business professionals are all losing their jobs at enormous rates due to Artificial Intelligence, and workforce realignments (aka layoffs).
The lower-level jobs are now being filled by hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, so the middle class is once again being squeezed. Unable to find work, especially at a level to replace their last income.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average hourly earnings have increased to $34.69 per hour. I realize that this is a national aggregate, but still, really? I am curious how they got this wage, so I looked it up.
According to the BLS, the average hourly rate is calculated by:
“Annual total of aggregate payrolls (all employees multiplied by weekly hours and hourly earnings) divided by annual aggregate hours”.
Now, does this account for exempt-related positions such as management or mid-management employees, doctors, etc? It said total aggregate payrolls, so I am assuming they are included, which raises the hourly rate up significantly to what the average person is seeing.
It also accounts for what I consider to be high hourly workers like nurses, hospital employees, police, and fire. I can assure you that waitstaff, bussers, and lower-level construction workers do not make this average hourly rate of almost $35/hour. This is an average of $72,800/year. I think life would be good if we all made that much money, but we don’t.
And life is not good, is it? All you have to do is walk into any grocery store and look at the increase in food prices, drive up to the gas pump and fill up your tank, or pay a monthly utility bill that has surged. How about health, auto, and home insurance that has almost tripled? Fewer healthcare benefits at higher costs for all individuals and families. Then add on taxes, mortgages, and rent. We are all hurting, so how can President Biden take a victory lap when the people of the United States are suffering? Because Washington is not in touch with how real people live, and the amount of homeless we have on the streets today.
The hourly wages are going down. If you are an employee of a company you are lucky if you get a 1.5-2.5% raise. Yet, our cost of living increases every year, sometimes by double digits.
So is the economy good? It doesn’t feel like it to me. I was in the grocery store months ago. I was in the produce section, where I seem to live these days. I heard the manager pull the department leader of produce over. He had sales stats for the following week. I overheard him tell the young man, that sales were down in his department almost “56,000 dollars last week”. So, if Washington thinks the economy and unemployment is so great, this is a huge indicator it is not! People are only buying what they need.
Also, the Administration has boosted that this has been the best year for ACA, or Obamacare. Do you think that is a fluke? No, it is because all the layoffs, especially tech, and older middle-class Americans are losing their jobs and cannot afford COBRA, so they had to switch to ACA.
Okay, enough on the rant, I could go on for hours. Let’s change courses.
What if you are trying to start a diet or change your way of eating to be healthier in this environment? How do you navigate it in this economy? Have you been through any drive-thru lately? What did it cost for a burger, fries, and drink? How about a pizza?
Here are some tips and tricks that I have found that work for me and I will share them with you.
1. Eat at home instead of drive-throughs, or restaurants.
2. Stop ordering food from Door Dash and Uber Eats.
3. Stop driving through Starbucks, and take your own coffee.
4. Do not rely on one store for all your needs but go to several stores.
5. Watch the ads for sales
6. Shop places like Aldi, and Trader Joe’s if you have one close. I don’t know if you have noticed, but Walmart and Target are no longer cheap anymore.
7. If you have a large family, use places like Costco and Sam’s Club for bulk buys.
8. Speaking of bulk buys, if your store is running a great price on something if you buy 5 or more and it is something you use daily, get it. But don’t do this if you cannot freeze it or you think it will go bad before you get to it.
9. Cook batches of rice and beans and freeze them. Also, cook them from scratch from large bags, and only have a few cans for emergency last-minute back up. It’s cheaper.
10. Buy only a few veggies at a time, and some frozen options as backups. This will ensure you use them before they go bad.
11. Look at generic brands and read the labels. Sometimes they are healthier.
12. When you purchase bread, buns, and rolls, freeze them and only take out what you need, when you need it.
13. Shop from a list and do not purchase impulse things.
14. Use coupons
15. Use store reward cards to get money off gas. Who cares if they are tracking your purchases? They are tracking them anyway. You are not beating the system.
For fruit and vegetables, use the dirty dozen list to purchase organics, and buy everything else conventional, and look at the clean 15.
You can find this information on my blog at Nutritionisthekeytohealth.com
16. If you are close to a co-op or farmer’s market, try and support the local growers. Sometimes if you get there right before they are closing, they will give you a deal.
17. Make a food budget each month. Do not go over it.
I hope these has given you some ideas on how to save in this economy. As always, thank you for being with me today.
See you in the next episode!