Since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, the political banter has often been about “jobs.” However, the talk of “jobs” is just a cover for the real economic problem, which is the massive expansion of debt with no mathematical way to pay it that is working in combination with a desire for cheap labor and competition from the entire world in a fiscal race-to-the-bottom. One cannot “create” jobs that do not exist (without serious long-term consequences) because there has to be work to be done, and if the work to be done cannot be done (it does not matter the reason), then there are no “jobs” to “create”.
As such, the talk of the payroll has been mostly a political football that like the immigration issue is thrown back and forth between parties with no actual improvement in the fundamentals. However, CNBC reports a fundamental reality with the payrolls, which is that in the month of March alone, due to the current economic troubles connected to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, has seen almost a decline in the payrolls by three-quarters of a million people.
Nonfarm payrolls dropped by 701,000 in March, according to Labor Department numbers released Friday that only begin to show the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus crisis.
It was the first decline in payrolls since September 2010 and came close to the May 2009 financial crisis peak of 800,000. Some two-thirds of the drop came in the hospitality industry, particularly bars and restaurants forced to close during the economic shutdown.
That headline number reflects the count from establishments the government surveyed for its report. The household survey, which asks individual residences about their employment situation, showed a plunge of nearly 3 million. (source)
This is one month. One can only imagine what will happen in April, for there is no guarantee if economic activity will be permitted to resume.
The longer this crisis drags on in the current form- and I am not trying to deny any real threat from the spread of the disease -the weaker the US economy will become and the closer the dollar will move towards a fiscal collapse in her value.
If you are one of the ones who still has the ability to work, work as hard and as wisely as you can while you are able to, for there may come a time when you may not be afforded that opportunity any more.
After all, almost three-quarters of a million people did not start 2020 thinking they would be unemployed in a few months and facing a possible economic ruin.