Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis |
Thinking of Quitting Your Job? Wage Growth vs. Quit Rates Posted: 08 Sep 2015 02:26 PM PDT Looking for Greener Pastures? A Chicago Fed report investigates Job Switching and Wage Growth. People generally switch jobs by quitting (rather than losing) their previous job. Furthermore, the vast majority of people observed quitting their job tend to move directly to a new job, rather than becoming unemployed or exiting the labor force. Therefore, estimates of worker quits provide a good measure of job switching in the U.S. economy. Data from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) provide an estimate of the aggregate quit rate each month for the U.S. economy since 2000. Recent research by Steven Davis, R. Jason Faberman, and John Haltiwanger has extended the JOLTS data series back to the early 1990s. Their work shows that quits are highly procyclical. That is, they rise during expansions and fall during recessions.Wage Growth vs. Quit Rates I fail to see evidence of the claim "fluctuations in the quit rate seem to precede fluctuations in wage growth by roughly one to two quarters, suggesting that quits may be a useful predictor of future wage growth." In 2009, wages turned up before quit rates. In 1992 they appeared at roughly the same time. And in 2003, wages ticked up years after quit rates. I would like to see data for more years, but Fred (the Federal Reserve Economic Data) repository only dates back to 2000. Somehow the authors have more years of data. Quit Rates and Recessions What caught my eye was something missing from the above charts: Recession bars. Note that between 2002 and 2004, quits fell during an expansion. Quits tend to peak just before all hell breaks loose. That's certainly something to consider if you are thinking of quitting your job for greener pastures. Mike "Mish" Shedlock |
Posted: 08 Sep 2015 11:02 AM PDT Burgeoning Trade in Fake and Stolen Syrian Passports For those hoping to leave from wherever to EU countries, the passport of choice is Syrian. Preferential treatment Syrians receive in Germany and Sweden has turned Syrian passports into desired, and valuable documents. And with the increased demand comes passport theft and forgery. In a process known as ghost travel, still others borrow a passport from someone who looks similar, then return the passport after they arrive where they want to be. EU officials are now concerned over the Burgeoning Trade in Fake and Stolen Syrian Passports. Though most European nations have been slow to welcome more than a few Syrian refugees, the well-known preferential treatment Syrians receive within the German and Swedish asylum system has turned their passports into desired accessories for other immigrants who otherwise would not be likely qualify as refugees.Germany Could Take 500,000 Refugees a Year The German vice-chancellor repeated his call for EU countries to take their fair share of refugees, as violence flares between police and refugees on Greek island of Lesbos. "Germany Could take 500,000 Refugees a Year" for several years said vice-chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel. "I believe we could surely deal with something in the order of half a million for several years," he told ZDF public television. "I have no doubt about that, maybe more." Germany expects to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year, four times the total for 2014.Everyone Wants Out Rounding out a trio of exodus articles, please consider 'Everyone wants to leave': death of hope drives young Syrians to Europe. Four million Syrians have left the country and 6.5 million more are internally displaced. In government-controlled Damascus, rebel mortar bombs kill a few civilians every week. In mid-August government forces bombed the souk in nearby Douma, killing 250 people – almost two years to the day since a chemical weapons attack killed 1,300 in the same area.Celebration?! And what do you do in Germany when you cannot speak German or English? Where do you get a job? And what if you get stuck in Greece or Hungary along the way? Demand to "Do More" Humanitarians demand Europe do more. But look at it this way. If Germany provided airlifts to all who wanted out, something on the order of 6.5 million displaced citizens would be takers, not the 800,000 Germany is willing to take. And it's reasonable to assume there would be another couple million non-displaced takers as well. Simply put, the easier the EU makes it on refugees to get out, the more takers there will be. Origin of the Crisis Let's return to the origin of this massive mess. Here's a picture from the Guardian to consider. Syrians walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following reported air strikes by regime forces in Douma. Photograph: Abd Doumany/AFP/Getty Images. Please recall the mindless US overthrow of Sadaam Hussein that totally destroyed Iraq and led to the rise of ISIS. The US also provided help to Al Qaeda "moderates" in a foolish attempt to oust Syrian president Assad. Weapons instead ended up in the hands of ISIS. Russia and Iran both want to fight ISIS, but the US does not want that help because it wants to get rid of Assad. We learned nothing in Iraq, nothing in Afghanistan, and nothing from the idiotic policy of giving weapons and aid to "moderate" extremists. The very heart of this mess is US meddling. Mike "Mish" Shedlock |
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