Comment on "The Real Economic Story: 734,000 Jobs Not Created In April, Stop Blaming Workers"
"Look at manufacturing, where there’s a regular dirge that they can’t find enough employees. In March 2021, average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory manufacturing employees was $23.33. In March 1970, they were $3.19. But scale up that 51-year-old figure through the Bureau of Labor Standards inflation calculator and by the power of rising cost of living, you’d have $22.12. A 5% premium for five decades, even as the savings from productivity skyrocketed."
The median employee age has increased 2.9 years between 1999 and 2019, probably more between 1970 and 2020. So this really isn't a premium, it's a yearly raise that's less than inflation.
Sorry to have not responded sooner. It's a tiny bit over what you might have expected from inflation. The term premium was a bit tongue in cheek. To better understand what might have been more reasonable, you have to look at how productivity had improved. In the past, the gained value of productivity was split more between workers and companies. That has shifted and the benefits largely going just to employers.
I'd have thought the opposite, so went looking for data. Median age of manufacturing employees skews a couple of years than in general. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18b.htm
Skews a little older, that is, which, from my research into and reporting about manufacturing, isn't surprising. Many younger people want to get into other fields to make money, the available employment has shrunk over the years, the unionized parts support seniority in retaining jobs, and if you're learning how to program a CNC device, why not learn more and get into more general programming that offers higher salary expectations.
Comment on "The Real Economic Story: 734,000 Jobs Not Created In April, Stop Blaming Workers"
"Look at manufacturing, where there’s a regular dirge that they can’t find enough employees. In March 2021, average hourly earnings of production and non-supervisory manufacturing employees was $23.33. In March 1970, they were $3.19. But scale up that 51-year-old figure through the Bureau of Labor Standards inflation calculator and by the power of rising cost of living, you’d have $22.12. A 5% premium for five decades, even as the savings from productivity skyrocketed."
The median employee age has increased 2.9 years between 1999 and 2019, probably more between 1970 and 2020. So this really isn't a premium, it's a yearly raise that's less than inflation.
https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/median-age-labor-force.htm
Sorry to have not responded sooner. It's a tiny bit over what you might have expected from inflation. The term premium was a bit tongue in cheek. To better understand what might have been more reasonable, you have to look at how productivity had improved. In the past, the gained value of productivity was split more between workers and companies. That has shifted and the benefits largely going just to employers.
Of course manufacturing employees might trend younger than the median of all employees.
I'd have thought the opposite, so went looking for data. Median age of manufacturing employees skews a couple of years than in general. https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18b.htm
So it's even worse. :|
Skews a little older, that is, which, from my research into and reporting about manufacturing, isn't surprising. Many younger people want to get into other fields to make money, the available employment has shrunk over the years, the unionized parts support seniority in retaining jobs, and if you're learning how to program a CNC device, why not learn more and get into more general programming that offers higher salary expectations.