Main Street Disconnect

While the news media celebrates a drop in the unemployment rate & the stock market continues to party like it’s 1999 (or 1982), it seems most pundits, politicians, and Wall Street executives continue to be disconnected from what is happening on Main Street.

It is true, we have seen one of the strongest recoveries on record in terms of the number of jobs.

The pace of growth, however seems to be slowing over the last 12 months. Worse, the long-term trend in job growth remains on a downward slope. 

Most importantly and something that is missed by most is the QUALITY of jobs that are being added. Higher income jobs have been replaced by lower income jobs, which leaves a steady downtrend in household income growth.

Want to see why so many people on Main Street are upset? Look at this chart which compares the change in Corporate Profits (after paying “obscene” TAXES (Donald Trump’s words)) to the change in earnings for non-supervisory employees.

Since 1990, America’s corporations have gotten extremely wealthy, while the average worker muddles along.  Trump may talk a big game about boosting the middle class, but so far his cabinet picks do not seem to back-up his campaign rhetoric.