The WAY to WOW Shows
Economic Echoes
July 17, 2024
Automatically generated from YouTube captions; names and wording may contain errors.

[0:00] to people making money I'm your host Kevin bemel and we are here every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time that's of course 1 pm on the east coast and an hour in for Central and mountain time and this is our monthly feature called economic Echo where we talk about how changes in the economy affect us as individuals so many of you have may have heard me before since saying we don't live the national economy it it doesn't really matter if the you know

[0:36] unemployment rate is is 3% Nationwide um because we live in a local and how things how things are happening locally is much more important than how things than than what's happening on on the national scale and so once a month after the figures come out we go through the more localized well we go through the national and more localized numbers so you can see how they compare and get a sense of how these things might be impacting your life the life of your family loved ones Etc so we're going to

[1:13] start out as we always do by talking about the Consumer Price Index otherwise known as inflation and you'll see here that um as of last month June okay May CPI for all items falls. 1% in June the price of gasoline was down so a tenth of 1% probably not particularly noticeable uh in terms of of that uh however the the more relevant statistic

[1:48] is that um Prices rose 3% over the last 12 months what they call not seasonally adjusted um and that that's just how they take into account you know summer winter fall Etc uh so you you can see here that all items was 3% food went up 2.2% okay and energy went up 1% and all items less food and energy went up 3% so we can click on these and you can see

[2:23] that food at home went up 1.1% but food away from home went up 4. 1% and let's see how do we how do we get this to go back uh no it doesn't want to do that okay well that's that's weird that you can't you can't go back nope okay well in any event um this is the this is the national let me let try this there we go um this is the national picture okay so then looking at energy okay so uh energy Commodities

[2:58] went actually went down 2.2% Energy Services which are okay here we go so electricity and natural gas uh went up now in the summer of course when it's hot the fact that electricity prices went up um 4.4% you can see that that's that's a big that's a big bite so if if you're like me I'm going to go back to this okay if you're like me I I drive very little right so um uh fuel oil uh was up 8% but see

[3:35] gasoline was down 25% but I don't drive very much so that doesn't really affect me um whereas um I I uh you know I live at home my office is at home and and I need and I well I need air conditioning um and that went up 4.4% so for me although overall Energy prices pardon me

[4:10] um overall Energy prices only went up 1% nationally oh gosh so although Energy prices only went up

[4:45] uh 1% um uh for me they went up much more because I use very little gasoline but a lot of electricity okay uh foodwise and again this is this is me so I don't eat out very often um I eat at home a lot so although food prices overall went up 2.2% for me um my food costs went up only probably about 1.1% because I didn't eat I don't eat

[5:22] you know I don't eat at restaurants very often so these are the kind of things when we start digging into it um you can um you know can see how they're working okay so next now let's look at here we go uh this is what we want no wait

[5:59] here we go okay so um now we're going to look at the um the regional CPI which is you know much more relevant to us um than than the national because again we we we live more localized so you can see they have certain regions here Southwest Midwest Northeast South Atlantic Mountain uh east north central New England Etc so I'm going to look at the Pacific oops

[6:36] there it is so you can see the in the Pacific okay we were right at 3% which is very similar to the um to that for the country overall now let's compare that for example to the Midwest so the Midwest actually had lower inflation to and a half% than the nation as a whole okay and if we look at the West overall okay the West overall was had inflation of 2.8%

[7:11] whereas the Pacific the inflation was 3% okay let's look at the South okay South was oops there we go south 2.9% so pretty much on par okay now let's look at something like New England okay New England had much lower inflation recently um but now may where's June okay in June inflation in New England was 3.8% almost a percentage Point higher than the national average okay so if

[7:46] you're living in the New England area overall you may be feeling greater inflation all right so let's take this off let's just focus here on the Pacific okay um let's take a look at this okay oh okay yeah yeah this won't give us what we want all right well so in in in any event we we don't have available to us um the individual items um on on the regional level um but um you know you

[8:21] can at least get a sense for um how things are going in your region so in the mountain region again 2.3% even lower than the Midwest okay so you know if you're living in the Midwest and mountain region you're experiencing inflation probably lower than those of us on the East and uh West coasts and here let's look at East South Central yeah East South Central see 3.4% Mid-Atlantic 3.8% and uh let's get rid of these two

[8:58] West North Central here we go still you know 3% similar to the Pacific and West South Central okay West South Central 3.1% so so there you have it okay and oh we still got Mountain there okay so we want Pacific and get rid of mountain okay so by looking at the regional CPI you can get a s why like you may be thinking well you know it seems for me it seems to me that prices went up much more for me

[9:34] than they did you know for for what they're saying the national averages well by looking at the two different aspects one how the specific products you use and how those prices have changed versus the region that you're in you'll get a better sense of how things are going for you all right now let's go back here and next we're going to look at okay we want to look at

[10:11] [Music] unemployment which is make sure I'm getting the right one because there's so many here we go oops what happened to it here we go okay and all right so here we go with okay so this is the overall unemployment

[10:47] statistics and you and this is again for the entire I'm sorry oh wait a minute okay th I'm sorry this this is the this is the um earnings so we're we're going to look at uh earnings first okay so earnings in June last month uh average hourly earnings were $118 so they went up four cents an hour

[11:22] from last month so you know a small amount um over the over the year they went 9 cents okay so 9 cents against $11 is a less than uh 1% increase year-over-year okay so and and you can you can okay so it's actually here it is 88.8% increase year-over-year so wages are not keeping Pace with inflation so if you feel in general like

[11:58] you're falling behind that shouldn't surprise you uh because at least nationally inflation 3% for all Urban consumers wages went up less than a percent over that same time okay so um that's that in a nutshell um tells you why people you you've heard a lot about how people are unhappy about the economy and and there's there's of course you know a political storm going on about this because President Biden feels he's not being given enough credit well you know

[12:36] the reality is people are falling behind um there's there's there's just no you know doubt about that and you know that's just the reality of of the situation so um okay and now now let's look at this on a um Regional basis which is what's more important okay now here's this is changes in personal income uh through okay this is still

[13:14] through the first quarter so um evidently they haven't released second quarter numbers yet actually let me just double check this I want to next release current release okay yeah so the next release isn't coming out until June 28 so we'll cover this next month so we've looked at this we've looked at this chart before and you can see the areas where wages are um increasing the fastest um it it happens to also be in areas where inflation is the hottest okay um and and that should make sense whereas inflation is lower in the

[13:50] mountain and Midwest region and so wages are not uh increasing as quickly there so regionally uh like so if you're in California okay for example so inflation has been around 3% for for most of the last year or so wage growth in in the um from uh the third fourth quarter of last year through the first quarter of this year in California was up eight% over 88 8.2%

[14:28] in fact okay and same in Florida by the way Alabama it was up nine South Carolina 9.5 so you can see in these states even though some of them had higher inflation than the national average people are still doing well because their their income is increasing faster than inflation but for people in North Dakota they're losing ground for sure even though inflation is lower in the Midwest so if you're in North Dakota you're feeling like wow I I feel really strapped or if you're in uh Nebraska um

[15:06] you probably are feeling you know pretty tight same with uh uh Illinois okay where these are these are the three states with the lowest wage growth followed by um Iowa so if you're in any of those States I imagine that uh you're you you may be feeling pretty pinched um by the fact that um you know wage growth is is not or barely keeping up with inflation okay now let's go

[15:42] to let's let's go to um unemployment so here we go oh where's the here we go okay so this is the national unemployment rate okay and you can see that it ticked up slightly in June to 4.1% from 4% in May so you know a little bit a little bit higher overall now for

[16:17] men okay the unemployment rate went from 3.3% in March I'm sorry in uh 3.8% in May to it stay the same 3.8% in June so overall for men unemployment didn't change for women okay it was 3.4% in May and it ticked up to 3.7% in June why did it go for women I don't know that's a good question okay

[16:52] then let's look next at teenagers so teenagers okay the unemployment rate in June was 12.1% at which is down a little bit from May okay and maybe that's because you know we're in the throws of Summer now more teens were able to find jobs I know I was at the supermarket the other day and oops you know what I realized there you go okay so now sorry about that um so um you so I was at the supermarket the other day and I noticed there was a teenager working there hadn't noticed

[17:28] that before okay let me let me go back and show you these real quickly again take this out okay so here we go again for women it went up to 3.7% from 3.4 and for men it stayed the same at 3.8 now it is interesting overall the employment rate is slightly higher for men although women um you know kind of almost caught up in June in terms of unemployment okay among white Americans okay unemployment for June

[18:04] 3.5% okay and that was the same as in May and and April for that matter so unemployment has been pretty consistent for for white Americans for black Americans okay unemployment in June was 6.3% which you'll notice is up a little bit from May um but is up a lot from April right in April it was at five .6% so at today in June it's at 6.3 so it's gone up a half a percentage point for for black Americans okay and overall compared to the total okay black

[18:41] Americans have a higher unemployment rate all right next Asians okay so Asians um recently have been much lower than the national average they were at 2 and a half% in March 3.1% in May in June they went up to 4.1% you know again why why did Asian unemployment Skyrocket that that's that's a good question that's you know something to to take a look at all right and then finally Hispanic or

[19:17] Latino um is um at 12.1% um up uh sorry down slightly from May which was 12.3 3% but still much higher than the national average okay now part of part of these may have to do with the particular industries that particular uh ethnic groups are in so um a lot of of of Hispanics especially lower income Hispanics are involved in very seasonal type work and and that's

[19:54] why I think you see such you know larger fluctuations um with respect to Asians you know I'm I don't know that that's this is an interesting thing that it went up so much um o over the last uh quarter it well didn't double but went up by about 60% that that's that's pretty interesting um and and notice by the way that um Asians typically have a lower unemployment rate than than whites do now all of a sudden Asians have a higher unemployment rate than white so um you

[20:31] know something is going on there we'll have to look at that Trend again next month and see if we can figure out what what's go what's going on there all right so next let's look at where is it I went too far here we go unemployment rates for the states okay so once again The Dakotas have the

[21:10] lowest unemployment rate so in may they were at 2% you see they're they're tied for first uh followed by Vermont uh Nebraska New Hampshire Maryland Virginia so the the lowest States it's interesting they're not really grouped around any particular region so this is probably not probably this is due primarily to the the focus of Industries um in in each state so so for example there's a lot of um energy production in the dtas um and and so

[21:46] that's what keeps unemployment low there Virginia and Maryland um because that's where the federal government is located unemployment is is low there uh why unemployment is low in New England that that's a good question uh you know the the the type of well I think part of that is um yeah I don't know if you're in New England that's something for you to ponder um because I I I'm I'm at a loss as to think of what what industries are going on there that

[22:21] are experiencing such low unemployment okay so then we move through this is sort of the uh average unemployment here and then we start getting into States like uh Delaware Michigan almost at at 3.9% almost four Texas is at four uh a little bit higher than the national average okay um and now part of the the situation with with a state like Texas is it's a large State uh and and people come there for opportunity and so it it

[22:56] has a more vibrant um uh labor market okay same is true of New York you'll notice once again California and the District of Colombia are vying for the you know for the bottom spot now you may be saying well wait a minute why does the District of Colombia have one of the highest um uh unemployment rates um when the federal government is actually located in the District of Columbia right and the reason is because very few government workers live actually live in

[23:32] the District of Columbia most of them live in uh Maryland and Virginia and so um the District of Colombia has a very uh not a not a very but has it has a population mix of very lowincome people who tend to struggle with unemployment and and then very high income people um you know who are connected to the government although generally speaking they're elected officials um who live in DC and so you

[24:07] know they they don't they're not um generally speaking struggling with um uh with employment now you'll also notice by the way that generally speaking um states with higher taxation are also experiencing higher unemployment rates so that would be California Washington Illinois New Jersey okay Connecticut Rhode Island all of these states New York is up here um same with Oregon all of these states have relatively high unemployment rates I'm

[24:44] unemployment rates right now you say well West Virginia I don't think West Virginia is a high tax state no it's not but West Virginia is a traditional it's a coal producing state I want to say a traditional energy producing state it's specifically Ally coal and of course there's a lot of pressure um to uh decrease uh coal production um for the production of electricity Etc and so that has a depressing effect on employment in a state like uh West Virginia so again as you look at at at

[25:19] the unemployment rates depending on which state you're in that may tell you what what your employment prospects are now having said all of that with the top unemployment rate being 5.3% overall this is a fairly tight labor market okay so you know we're not approaching anything close to double digigit unemployment which in a in a recession would certainly be possible so overall no matter which state you're in

[25:54] uh you know employment is is is is pretty tight and you can see that the range is 3.3% so roughly 3% um between the lowest at two and the highest at 5.3 so pretty much anywhere you go um employment is going to be uh pretty strong okay so now let's go on to let's look at employe by

[26:29] industry nationally first okay and let's see there we go okay so this tells you what um areas what sectors of employment have changed how how employment in that se those sectors have changed so the ones on this side is where employment has grown the one that's on this side is where employment has shrunk and you'll notice let's look at the shrinking Side

[27:05] manufacturing okay the employment change by um industry over the last month um employment lost almost 13,000 jobs okay retail trade lost uh over 15,000 jobs okay um and uh I'm sorry retail trade lost eight and a half uh eight 8 point 8,500 jobs reducing total employment to um about 15.7

[27:41] million um uh manufacturing lost 8,000 jobs um reducing manufacturing employee employment to about 13 million okay Business Services lost 177,000 jobs jobs or so um bringing uh business service employment down to about 23 million now I'm I'm going to stay with this let's look at the 12 Monon overall so overall o in in the last in the last year manufacturing has increased by 5,000 jobs which is a

[28:20] 0% change right so over the last year manufacturing employment has been pretty steady um as compared with retail trade which although it's it's went down over the last month over the last year retail trade added 81,000 jobs which is a half a percent increase over the last year and finally Business and Professional Services over the last year added 67,000 jobs for a 3% change so not a big change

[28:55] there but still um you know net uh job growth okay so now let's go back to the one Monon picture now let's look at the biggest gainers in uh employment and the biggest gainer is private education and health services at 82,000 more jobs um over the last month okay a 3% increase which for a one Monon change is is is pretty big so total employment in private education Health Services is over 26 million jobs now one

[29:32] of the reasons why this increased so much is because health services are are largely funded by um government transfer payments and so that's why we continue to see robust growth in this sector the next largest sector is government where there was 70,000 new jobs created in the last month month again a 3% increase 23.4 million jobs in government okay both of these we've seen and you'll see

[30:08] when we go to the one year um the trend has been these typically are the largest gains and they're being fueled essentially by tax dollars okay next is construction and construction saw 27,000 new jobs last month also a 3% change so there's about 8.2 million people employed in construction so construction stayed has stayed pretty Ro stayed robust this this past month despite the higher interest rates and that's that's a good thing um for for those sectors so now let's look at the

[30:44] 12 month so again you can see um just like in the one month Trend so in private sect in private Education and healthc Care Services over the last year almost 1.1 million jobs were created a 4.2% increase as and then look at government there were 67,000 jobs created over the last year a 2.7% increase in construction okay there were 235,000 jobs created over the last year okay which is a 2.9% increase so construction

[31:21] and government are increasing at about the same rate okay and then the the last the last large one on an annual basis is Leisure and Hospitality 325,000 new jobs over the last year with a 2% increase all right let's go back to the one month now we can drill down on these by clicking on them and you can see notice that private Educational Services actually shrunk and that's what I was saying before health care and social assistance which are largely government driven we really where the job growth uh is is is coming um in in

[32:00] this particular sector okay now let's look at at government so the Fe federal government um had you know some job growth but it's really state and local governments that are seeing a lot of job growth okay um but still you know funded by uh taxpayers okay and then looking at construction okay notice that um construction of buildings has been pretty high okay engineering a little bit less um and and then specialty trades has been really big so you know this may indicate that uh remodelings

[32:38] and such are perhaps more robust than the construction of new buildings all right and then let's let's let's do a drill down on on business professional and business services so notice that professional scientific and Technical Services actually grew this past month it's the administrative and support and waste management that caused the decline okay so so um it's it's sort of lower um lower wage jobs that were lost now this

[33:13] could be because of adoption of Technology AI that kind of thing but but that's that's you know essentially the gains here 24,000 and almost 2,000 were more than offset by the drop in administrative and support personnel and that's why overall this this sector lost 17,000 jobs okay now let's look at manufacturing okay so durable goods manufacturing lost 10,000 jobs even as non-durable Goods increased 2,000 so so

[33:51] what's happening is um the the demand for non-durable goods I that would be things like you know batteries or um you know perhaps clothing um those kind of things are still expanding a little bit but non-durable Goods cars refrigerators though the the manufacturer of them was decreasing and hence employment decreased and the and the the decrease in durable goods was much higher than the increase and non- durable goods so again we had a net job loss so these are the kinds of things to

[34:28] take a look at depending on what industry you're in let's look at one more retail trade okay so we have a mixed picture here okay motor vehicle and parts dealers went down 0.1% so you know or I mean not 0.1% went down by uh a 100 jobs um you know not not that much essentially even um Building Material garden equipment and supplies lost Lo 2 point well 2,400 jobs about 0.2% of their Workforce food and beverage

[35:04] retailers 1.8 1,800 jobs lost I be I I bet a lot of those were in California where the minimum wage for fast food workers went up um and straining a lot of businesses okay um almost 6,000 jobs were lost in retailing of Furniture Home Furnishings Electronics and Appliances now that's contrasted with general merchandise retailers where employment went up by over 5,000 jobs so for places like um um uh Walmart and such um

[35:41] employment increased okay Health uh and personal care retailers went up about a thousand gasoline went up by 500 essentially almost unchanged but again clothing went down by almost 2,000 and let's see what is this oh this is special Goods books uh I mean sorry hobby yeah Hobbies books musical instruments went down by over 3500 3 well went down 3600 jobs so you see a mixed picture but it does kind of Mi mirror a little bit um what we saw in the manufacturing sector in that things

[36:19] that are more durable Home Furnishings went down specialty Goods musical instruments um and and and those kind of things went down okay whereas general merchandise which is more non-durable Goods went up okay so it's it's good to look at these is and and look at you know based on what you know sector you're in okay and so let's let's look for me I'm in Business and Professional trade so see employment in my um sector went up okay so that's that's growing whereas administrative

[36:54] support went down um and and indeed I was looking to hire a summer intern but in the end it it fell through um and that's now that's not a job lost I'm just saying that um you know when when when it fell through when the person I had I had um sought to bring in fell through I just decided not to bring anyone else in we're gonna we're gonna deal with just the people that we have okay so I encourage you to look at this and and look at this this particular chart the link will be in the links to all of these charts will be in the show

[37:30] notes as always every month so you can look at this based on your own circumstances okay now let's let's go back and let's look at here we go uh industry employment by state here we go okay so this is still for May okay but you can see that um this is total non-farm employment let's look at some of these sectors so let's look at

[38:06] construction okay so employment by construction is highest in the biggest states that makes sense so the states with the most population have got the highest um uh you know density in terms of employment okay let's look at professional and business services okay you know again um bigger States and wealthier States tend to have more business and profession professional and business services so that's why you see Florida Texas California Georgia New York

[38:42] Pennsylvania Illinois Virginia these are all states that are relatively wealthy as opposed to the mountain states and and the southeast with the exception of Georgia and Florida where levels of wealth are not nearly as high and so you don't have as great a concentration of professional and business services okay let's look at government okay now same thing in general wealthier States tend to have higher government employment okay and um

[39:17] now it is interesting because you would say well wait why isn't there a you know red blue State divide and when it comes to government employment um this has as much to do with the size of the population as it does anything else so you can see populations here in the Upper Midwest and upper mountain states are um are among the lowest same with the the Northeast and so that's why you see um lower levels of government employment there now in the in the Northeast ma Massachusetts happens to be

[39:54] the most populous state and so you can see it has the highest level highest number of of government jobs um versus the other states um in the Northeast okay so this gives you an idea again depending on where you're at on a state byst state basis okay let's look at Financial activities okay notice Financial activities and professional business services pretty similar okay again has to do as much with popul a and wealth as it does with location or you know the

[40:31] political leanings of a state okay so this is another chart to take a look at to determine you know what what may be the prospects in the particular sector in which you're working or if you're looking for a different job or to get into a different sector where which states you know have the largest numbers now that doesn't necessarily mean that just because the numbers are low in the Upper Midwest and Upper Mountain States for say Business and Professional business services that they have the most opportunity because again the

[41:09] amount of wealth in these states overall is lower than in States like California and Texas on the other hand there may be less competition here okay and so you'll want to dig more deeply than even these statistics show okay so so this is a place to start um but you want to build from here okay let's go on to the next one which

[41:44] is okay we're going to look at job openings here we go oh wait um nope we're going to look at labor force participation rate I think I I skipped that if I'm not mistaken okay so all right so the labor force um participation rate you'll notice that the labor force participation rate ticked up one tenth of 1%

[42:19] Nationwide okay and so what that means is more people came into to the workforce um then left the workforce now this is this is for the total okay now let's compare it for men okay so for men it went up from uh uh May 69.9 to 70.4 so it went up by a half a percent now sometimes what we see happening when unemployment goes up is what's actually happened is the labor

[42:55] force particip IP ation rate has gone up so what happens is people see hey there's job opportunity I've been sitting on the sidelines and maybe it's time for me to get back into into job hunting because the labor force participation rate only tracks people who are employed or actively looking for work so if you if someone stops looking for work for a period of time they're not included in these statistics okay they're not in they're not they're not F factored in okay so let's take out men

[43:31] and let's look at women okay now the labor force participation rate for women dropped from 58.8% in May to 58.6% so it went down a little bit and indeed um the participation rate for men went up so much it offset the drop for women so that on net it went up slightly in June all right and now for teenagers okay the labor force

[44:06] participation rate dropped from 38.1% to 37.4% so that may be why um you know that is interesting because um with Summer you would have thought the labor force participation rate would have gone up but you know evidently not so um teenagers maybe are just you know they don't want to have a job they just want to you know take the summer off or whatever um and so that's that's what they're doing okay now let's look at

[44:44] labor force participation weight rate for whites okay so it's 6.2 62.2% June same as for May okay and if you recall we saw that the unemployment rate was steady also for white Americans for black Americans okay the labor force participation rate went from May here we go come on oops okay where's May April oh

[45:20] oops okay so it went from 62.9% in May Okay so it went up slightly in June to 62.7% so but overall notice that the labor force participation rate for the for this quarter really declined um for black Americans tending to indicate that um they're having a a you know a a harder time uh finding work and and if you recall they have a higher than um

[45:55] average uh unemployment rate and so you would assume that that would be the case now the labor okay so here's the answer to our question why did unemployment increase among Asians so much well here's why so in June the labor force participation rate was almost 66% and that's up from 65.3% in May which is up from 64 where is it right there 64.1% in March so Asians have been steadily

[46:32] entering the workforce which is why we're seeing um their unemployment rate increase then finally um for Hispanics so this is a similar Trend to um Asians over the last several months we've seen the labor force participation rate go up from 66.7% in December to 67.5% so it went up by almost a percentage point over the last six months and hence more people coming in causes the unemployment rate to go up

[47:11] alrighty now let's let's look at a a more uh Regional level for labor force participation here we go okay now this is kind of an Old Chart um but you can you can see and you can see that um in general this is on a county bycount basis um you can see where the labor force participation rates are highest it tends to be in the Upper Midwest and in the mountain states

[47:48] that's true for men and that's equally true for women and if we look at it in total okay that that that that trend is the same and indeed on a state by state basis looking at the totals you can see okay labor force participation is highest in the Upper Midwest okay lowest in the South and that holds true for men and for women okay so um you know

[48:23] some of those Trends are cultural some of those trends have to do with um opportunity in particular States so you know if for example if if you're in Alabama and and Mississippi okay you can see that the labor force participation rates um in in Louisiana Arkansas Mississippi and Alabama are among the lowest in the country along with New Mexico West Virginia and Kentucky and these states too they tend to be on the lower end of

[48:59] the um income scale as well okay and so that's one of the there's these are not uh their their economies are not as vibrant as other states economies okay now the these these figures by the way are several years old but those Trends really haven't changed um that much over time okay all right now let's go to we have we have one more set of figures to look at I believe yes indeed job

[49:35] openings and here we go okay so job openings nationally okay they went up last go from April to May the most recent figures we have available by 0.1% okay so you know not really that that big a change okay okay and you can see that the number um that that um you know the job opening increases have been fairly steady on a percentage basis for the

[50:10] last several months 5% 4.8 4.9 okay now let's look at um total private sector jobs okay they increased 5.8% in May of last year this year they increased by only 5% now let's look at government where in May of last year they increased by four and a half perc and in May of this year 4.4% so you can see the rate of increase in jobs in

[50:49] government has been steady whereas in the private sector it's dropped okay let's also look at uh health care and and um and social uh service social assistance so last year in May um the rate of increase was 7.3% this year in May at 6.8% so again it went down a little bit um but is still you know very robust and then finally healthc care 6.9% a year ago 6.5% % now and that's

[51:28] why you're seeing the number of positions in these sectors increasing so much okay as opposed to um retail trade okay so the change in retail trade jobs um over uh from um uh from from May of last year they increased by uh 4.6% um as osed to May of this year only 3% that's been a huge drop okay same

[52:03] with um I'm sorry nope I don't want to say that different for wholesale trade okay and then professional in Business Services um so 6 and a half% increase um last may 6.1% this may a little bit of a drop but but not not real huge okay so you can again depending on the sector that you're in at least nationally this this tells you what some of the changes are um and you can look here regionally now and you can see overall the Midwest

[52:40] had the biggest job gains in the past month um and um but you know overall the uh you know there's not a whole lot of difference um between the various regions okay all right so then finally we're going to look at one more chart which is job opening state by state which is really what matters to us okay so the states with the most job openings

[53:15] um as of April anyway total job openings 4.8% so you can see that um any state of um of the of the very dark green which you see here the next darkest green here and the next darkest green here actually have um higher levels of job openings than the national average and then these states have lower than the national average okay so if you're thinking about relocating and you're wondering well you

[53:50] know to where should I relocate this chart will help you give you some insight there so you know the states with the fewest jobs um job opening rates are are here um now you'll notice by the way that in some cases these are large population states that would be the case with California and New York so although they have a low percentage of job openings um still they probably have a lot of jobs because their populations are so large as opposed to States like

[54:28] Iowa Nebraska South Dakota which have much smaller populations and so the number of jobs there is going to be smaller the same is true by the way of Indiana okay so um you know looking at the rates for other large states so Texas and Florida they have a higher than average job opening rate although you know five Texas is 5.3% a half percent higher Florida 5% just slightly higher than national average so you can see that um in larger states with larger

[55:04] populations okay um they they you know slightly higher rates don't necessarily mean that their economies are bad it just means there's a lot of opportunity there okay uh and that is that is that so all of these and I go through these each month because I think it's important for us to be up toate on what's Happening not only in the National economy but more regionally as I said at the

[55:40] beginning of the show and in order for us to be well informed we need to know these things so it took me an hour well not quite an hour to go through all of these statistics but that's because I'm looking at a whole bunch of different aspects to show you the kind of information that's available and to give you a sense of what some of the local Trends are for for you if you take about 15 or 20 minutes you can go through all those statistics and all the links will be in the show notes and you can very quickly get a perspective on your

[56:17] individual situation that is much clearer than anything you're going to hear in the news okay because the news is reporting generally speaking Nationwide okay there's not a whole lot of local news reported anymore um especially on television there's you know you're talking CNN Fox News MSNBC CNBC generally speaking they're reporting national news they may on occasion comment on more local economic issues okay um but even on your local

[56:53] news channels uh you know they rarely going to cover this kind of data in in this at this level of granularity so I encourage you to take a look at these and get a sense of what's really going on so that you can make proper economic decisions for you and your family proper investment decisions for you and your family and and just overall better plan whether it's your budgeting whether it's job changes all of those things are impacted by these numbers so thank you

[57:29] very much for joining me now unlike past weeks this is not the last show for this week tomorrow at 5 PM is the first episode of jigger's place this is a new show I'm launching this week and it's at 5:00 pm Pacific time so it's in the afternoon that's going to be of course 8 o'clock on the east coast and this is an opportunity for us just to to relax have a cocktail and talk about something interesting this is not going to be economics focused it's not going to be

[58:06] professional focused it's we're going to talk about books ideas life all of the things that make life worth living over and above our professional lives so come spend a half hour with me tomorrow at jigger's place and if you're wondering what that's all about you can look at my show last week here on people making money where I introduced the show and I'll tune in tomorrow and I'll I'll show you where jiggers is Place comes from and I hope so I hope you will join me for like I said a half an hour of relaxation so thank you very much for

[58:41] joining me today wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off Marie you