High unemployment, high inflation, and high interest rates 6% or higher all at the same time plagued the country for six years 1975-1982, but we survived

 There were six years when all three, the unemployment rate, headline inflation, and 10-year US Treasury yield, were at 6% or higher on an average basis at the same time:

1975: 8.5%  9.14%  7.99%

1977: 7.1%  6.46%  7.42%

1978: 6.1%  7.62%  8.41%

1980: 7.2%  13.5%  11.43%

1981: 7.6%  10.37%  13.92%

1982: 9.7%  6.15%  13.01%.

 

In March 2025 unemployment was 4.2%, headline inflation was 2.4%, and the 10Y yielded 4.28%.

The current data set is no compelling case for reducing interest rates.  If Trump had confidence in his tariff regime, he wouldn't be clamoring for further reductions.

 

Fake job seekers flood companies hiring for fake jobs

 

Fake job seekers are flooding U.S. companies that are hiring for remote positions, tech CEOs say

Car manufacturing jobs, so-called good jobs, already don't pay enough to enable these Detroit auto workers to buy their own homes and have families, and they fear layoffs because of the tariffs

 The Wall Street Journal doesn't mention it here.

This guy's been working for the company for 10 years and he's still renting.

... Daniel Campbell, who maneuvers steel auto parts around a Stellantis factory north of Detroit, says he and many of his colleagues are worried about layoffs.

“I’m scared,” he said from his brick bungalow on the west side of Detroit, which he rents with two roommates. “We’re complaining about gas and eggs now. Who is going to be able to buy these cars that are already $80,000, and then you make it $90,000?”

The 46-year-old UAW member, who makes about $30 an hour, and one of his roommates have talked about trimming their spending, including eating out less and cutting clothing and electronics purchases. 

“There’s going to come a time where we’re not going to be able to go and spend,” he said. 

 At work, the assembly lines have been running faster in recent weeks as Stellantis has tried to stockpile parts ahead of the tariffs, Campbell said. He and his co-workers are running out of room to store the parts. ...

Just 49.08% had a full time job in 1Q2025

 

Donald Trump's dumb ass unemployment rate was 37.6% in 1Q2025

 

More people than ever were eating but not working in Donald Trump's America in 1Q2025, 102.657 million

 

Multiple job holders hit what only looks like a new high in Feb 2025 at 9 million not seasonally adjusted

 But as a percent of civilian population, the 3.3% current level still doesn't come close to the 1996 peak at 4.2%.

More Americans with college degrees are working multiple jobs, Fed report finds

 

 

Meanwhile in the real world full time employment as a percentage of population fell for a seventh consecutive month in Feb 2025 to 48.88% from 50.26% in July 2024

 That's the worst February reading since 47.51% in Feb 2021.

 

 

 

The Dumb Ass Unemployment Rate in February 2025 falls to 37.65% as 102.7 million are eating but not working under Donald Trump instead of 102.9 million in January

 

Since Donald Trump wants to move the goalposts for counting the costs of his tax cuts and for calculating GDP, let's use his dumb ass unemployment rate from 2015 from now on, shall we?

 Donald Trump had one of the worst annual dumb ass unemployment rates in history in 2020: 38.25%.

Every president between Carter and Obama did better than he did.

Get off your ass you losers and get to work.

 

 

Imbeciles Trump and Musk claim millions over the age of 100 get Social Security when it is 89,106 people in December 2024 lol

Trump loves Whoppers.

Smell the farts of nothing has changed.

In 2015 Trump used Rush Limbaugh Math and came up with 42% unemployed lol. "Not in labor force" is not a measure of unemployment.

These Social Security claims are loonier than Joe Biden and Kamala Harris saying 200 million and more had already died of COVID in the United States during their campaign for president-vice president in 2020. Joe corrected himself eventually. Trump and Musk WILL NOT.

... The [Social Security] issue has been repeatedly identified by inspectors general at the agency, but the Social Security Administration has argued that updating old records was costly and unnecessary.

Per the agency’s online records, just 89,106 people — not tens of millions — over the age of 99 received retirement benefits in December 2024, out of the more than 70 million people who receive benefits each year.

It’s a “humiliating mistake for anyone else to make, but they’re doubling and tripling down on it,” said Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank that addresses government spending. ...

More.

Meanwhile the US population 65 years old and older was only about 59 million in 2023. Hello.

 

January 2025 is the fifth consecutive January with full time employment not as good as in January 2020 when 49.85% of civilian population usually worked full time

January 2020: 49.85%

January 2021: 47.42%

January 2022: 49.29%

January 2023: 49.32%

January 2024: 49.16%

January 2025: 49.22%

 

Peak Baby Boomers worked when they were teenagers, at 2.07% of population, still the peak, today at just 0.78% of population

Get a haircut and get a real job
Clean your act up and don't be a slob
Get it together like your big brother Bob
Why don't you, get a haircut and get a real job?

-- George Thorogood, 1993

 

It's not a perfect one to one comparison, let alone an actual measurement, but about 20% of teenagers worked in 1979, and not quite 12% today:

Full time employment as a percentage of population fell to 49.33% in December 2024 and 49.65% for full year 2024

 It's been a five month slide in 2024 from the peak of 50.26% in July.

Peak annual for this cycle was in 2023 at 50.21%.

The Trump I annual peak was in 2019 at 50.38%.

Previous to that, full time as a percentage of population peaked in 2006 under Bush 43 at 52.3%, and the mother of all peaks was under Bill Clinton in the year 2000 at 53.55%.

Somebody needs to fix this. 

I don't think it will be Trump II.

Sad!

 

49.33% December 2024

49.65% Full Year 2024