Ontario County unemployment down to 3.5%
The U.S. Labor Department reported Friday that 428,000 jobs were added to the national economy in April 2022. This is the straight month new jobs were added to the economy - a direct result of the effects of Federal stimulus spending by the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Acts passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Biden. The U.S. added over 6,500,000 jobs in the past year and nationally, the 3.6% unemployment rate remained at a nearly five-decade low.
Job growth in April was strongest in the Leisure and Hospitality, Manufacturing, and Transportation and Warehousing sectors, all significant parts of our local economy. Here in Ontario County, the Federal Reserve reports the unemployment rate is 3.5% and over 10,000 full time jobs remain open in our county according to the job search website Indeed.
The robust & growing market for workers has also led to larger paychecks for most. On average, worker's wages are up around 5.5% in the past year - one of the largest single year gains in wages in the past 50 years.
Sadly, while workers celebrate their higher wages, we're all experiencing price induced inflation particularly in vital consumer goods like groceries, fuel and housing. Globally, prices are higher due to supply chain disruptions, rebounding economies that were disrupted by the initial phases of the COVID pandemic, and the war in Ukraine. Simple greed is also driving much of the price inflation as seen by the extraordinary profits taken by corporations that continue to raise prices on consumers even as they report record earnings. Unfortunately, in the U.S., many of the most profitable corporations pay little or no taxes at all thanks to the GoP-passed 2017 Tax Reform Act. (Let's remember that this law passed as an exception to the Senate's filibuster rule too!) Changing the unfair disparity between the taxes individuals pay and those corporations don't pay requires strong and committed Democratic Party majorities in Congress - both House and Senate. Electing Democrats to Congress - and then holding them accountable to voters - is the surest way we will bring equity back to working Americans.
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