U.S. Jobs growing at steady pace
By Anna Louie Sussman - Wall Street Journal
Sep. 2, 2016
WASHINGTON—Employers added 151,000 jobs in August.Over the past three months, job growth has averaged about 232,000 a month. In 2015, monthly job growth averaged 229,000.
Average hourly earnings rose 2.4% in the year through August, a slight slowdown from July’s increase of 2.6%. Annual wage growth averaged 2.3% in 2015, and has matched or been higher than that each month so far this year.
The jobless rate held steady at 4.9% in August, its third straight month at that level. Hiring was robust enough to absorb new entrants into the labor market, keeping the overall unemployment rate stable.
A broader measure of unemployment held steady in August from 9.7% in July. This measure reflects jobless workers, those stuck in part-time jobs, and those too discouraged to look for work. The measure stood at 10.3% in August 2015, and in June had fallen to 9.6%, its lowest measure since 2008.
Record Level of Manufacturing Job Openings Need Trained Workers
By Anna Louie Sussman - Wall Street Journal
September 3, 2016
Amid anxiety about the disappearance of factory jobs, thousands of them are going unfilled across the U.S.
The number of open manufacturing jobs has been rising since 2009, and this year stands at the highest level in 15 years, according to Labor Department data.
Openings for manufacturing jobs this year have averaged 353,000 a month, up from 311,000 in 2015 and 122,000 in 2009.
As manufacturing has become more technology-driven, its share of managers and professionals has risen, according to the Labor Department - 53% of manufacturing workers had no education past high school. By 2015, that share had fallen 9 percentage points, while the share with college or graduate degrees increased 8 points.
That is despite a large pool of available labor. Between June 2015 and June 2016, there was an average of two unemployed manufacturing workers for each open position, according to the Labor Department.
With workers—and the institutions that educate them—slow to adapt, executives like Mike Magee, president of Akron Tool & Die Co. in Ohio, spend months searching for candidates. He has had three or four machinist jobs open since the beginning of the year, positions that command $23 to $25 an hour for an experienced candidate.
"The high school grad that gets training in CNC machining will make more than most of his bachelors degreed fellow students", says one CEO.
US Residential Electric Rates Finally Trend Down
The Latest data from the Energy Information Administration reports the June 2016 US average residential electric rate at $0.1273/KwH down 1% compared to last June 2015. This comes after a 26% increase in last 8 years.
BETTER DAYS ARE ON THE WAY