Labor and Wages

Tne News and Internet, for reason known not even to itself, often tends to gravitate to one theme, especially on the Weekends. This time it is Labor and Wages. A NYTimes article stands as the best place to Quote from:

The low unemployment rate has come about despite a slow rate of job creation. At this point after the previous nine recessions, there were an average of 11.9 percent more jobs in the economy than there had been at the end of the recession.
But so far, as the charts show, there are just 3.5 percent more jobs than at the end of the last recession. That is less than half the lowest of the nine previous moves — a gain of 7.6 percent in the period after the 1953-54 recession. And that figure was held down by the fact that another recession, in 1957-58, had taken place by then.
Even the household survey, with its more positive numbers, indicates that little progress on jobs has been made in this recovery. There has been almost no increase, by these statistics, in the percentage of working-age Americans who are working. The decline in the unemployment rate reflects the fact that fewer of those without jobs say they are looking for work, as is required to be counted as unemployed.

This establishes that all is not rosy in the Job market. Another article clarifies the Bush and Congressional position on Americans who think to better themselves by Working overseas. Dean Baker is quite correct in stating that monthly Wage data is relatively useless, only year over year percentage Wage increases and indexing with Price percentage increase indexing give relatively solid information. Greg Mankiw gives the American Prospective to Europeans working less, coming from an European:
Europeans are working less and less for three reasons: first, increasing marginal tax rates (especially from the 1960s to the 1980s); second, a preference for leisure and, third, labor regulation and union-imposed standards for work time, including retirement regulations. Social multipliers compounds these effects: if a family member or friend has more time off, your own benefit from leisure increases, creating more social demand for leisure.

I personally expect it has more to do with a cultural expectation of European Workers that they will not get rich at their Jobs anyway, their Jobs will last the majority of their career, and they have an affinity for Cottage Trade craft labor effort.

The Adam Smith blog complains of the Cost of the European Union to every Man, Woman, and Child in Europe; I believing it is more like the cost to every Britan. Slate reminds Us all that Tax Cuts will not pay for themselves. Why have Either ever expected that Government was ever financially viable? lgl