New unemployment claims fell last week to 326,000, a 5 1/2 year low. July's survey of employers showed 162,000 new jobs created, this is about three times the rate of population growth. The odd thing was that 92,000 of these jobs went people 55 and over, with only 15,000 going to prime age workers 25-54. This could be taken as a good sign since workers over 55 have been systematically passed over for jobs since the Bush Crash.
Recent college grads got the other 55,000 new jobs. Not that a college education is necessarily worth much in a post-industrial, post-middle class country like the US. Forty percent of the people who make less than $10/hour have some college education. Plenty of young lawyers and engineers work at Best Buy.
There has been a lot of back and forth about McDonald's terrible wages with strikes ongoing in several cities, not that it makes the Evening News. The right wing talking point is that the minimum wage is only paid for 'starter jobs' and if you don't get ahead it's your fault. Okay, go to college so you can work at Best Buy for the same wages that McDonald's pays.
Another Right Wing talking point is that if any of these big corporate employers had to pay a decent wage then everything would cost 'TEN TIMES AS MUCH'. This is the same Right Wing math that makes them think that they can beat the 190 million to one odds when they buy a lottery ticket.
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