Something happened in the United States labor market last year that had not happened in over 30 years -- since 1984. The official government unemployment rate dropped in all 50 states from 2013 to 2014. This is a fairly rare occurrence. Even in a healthy economy, one or more states will usually buck the national trend and show a rise in unemployment from the previous year.
While this is a positive thing, and I hope it continues, it does not mean our economic ills have been cured. We still have too many people unemployed, too many people living in poverty, and wages are still stagnant for most in the bottom 90%. Continued job growth is only a partial answer to our economic problems.
Too many of the jobs being created are low-wage jobs, paying at or near the minimum wage (which as we know is a poverty wage), and by 2020 more than a quarter of all American workers will be stuck in those low-wage jobs. We need to significantly raise the minimum wage, so that no full-time worker is paid a poverty wage. We also need to make sure at least part of the rising productivity is shared with workers in the form of higher wages. And we need to stop the exporting of good American jobs.
Creating more jobs is a good thing, but it is not the complete answer to creating a healthy and growing economy. We must make sure those jobs pay a livable wage and provide a real future for the workers that get them.
The charts above were made from Labor Department statistics.
