“Mailbag” gives insight into the comments I get from my readers — good, bad or in-between — and my thoughts about their feedback.That’s not surprising since the job market is a volatile slice of the economy. My inbox highlights the debate over which statistics best portray the health of the employment picture. And readers have questions about my view on hiring and pay patterns.. That is a fabricated stat from the administration.
My irked reader might have missed the participation rate’s noteworthy bounce from lows hit when the coronavirus locked down the economy in 2020. But participation hasn’t fully recovered as workers slowly return to the job market, largely due to retirements. California’s rate is off by a quarter-point from its pre-pandemic 2015-2019 average. Nationally, the rate is down nearly a full percentage point.‘ is misleading. Certainly, all workers will not be upended. Many will keep doing what they are doing. Many will be employed via the “spinoff.”. No doubt there will be employment casualties, but not all 164,000 will be upended.