[ende]

Unemployment numbers also aren’t low because the economy is producing tons of new jobs; notice the record numbers of homeless on the streets? It’s the labor participation rate. People are only counted towards unemployment stats while they are actively seeking employment; after awhile they give up and drop out of the labor force completely.

Of course much of that drop is also demographics; the baby boomers are starting to retire en masse.

Still, the illusion of job abundance does not hold.

[adventured]

> Unemployment numbers also aren’t low because the economy is producing tons of new jobs

In fact the unemployment rate is low because the economy has produced an extraordinarily vast number of jobs. In May alone the US economy nearly produced a million new full-time jobs (solidly contracting the part-time count). The full-time job count is at an all-time record high. The US economy has produced 14 million full-time jobs in just the last six years. [1] And the median full-time income in the US is about $50,000, among the highest on earth.

> notice the record numbers of homeless on the streets?

The US homeless rate per capita has plunged dramatically and is at an all-time record low. [2] You're entirely fabricating your claims, both about jobs and homelessness.

The total homeless count has declined by roughly 27% in just 13 years. From ~760,000 in 2005, to less than 550,000 for 2018. The US added about 10% to its population over that time simultaneously.

How is that possible? Everyone knows the US sucks and has no safety net or support systems. Except, that's a lie. The US welfare state is now more generous than either the Canadian or Australian welfare states. [3]

[1] https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12500000

[2] https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homeless...

[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-05-16/the-u-s-s...

[woolvalley]

He may live in the bay area, where homeless has definitely increased, and the dynamic of jobs not paying enough to make rent is a real dynamic.

[omon]

Don't bother, for some, no matter what is true they'd prefer to live with some adverse abstraction to overcome; it provides unity, purpose, and a sense of importance.

[epalmer]

I'm a boomer at 64 and will work at least 3 more years. I have friends my age that are retiring and ones that are working. I don't even know what "retire en masse" means.