The single greatest job market in the history of modern society
In early January, Public Policy Polling set out to create a survey. They wanted to know what NFL team was the most hated. Their answer? The New England Patriots. Yet despite that, the Patriots have 5 Super Bowl wins over the last 15 years. More than any other team.
In July of 2016, Pew Research Center started a pole with US voters. They wanted to know about the election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. What issue mattered the most to voters? The number one answer was the economy. But that’s kind of weird. The economy has never been as strong as it is now.
In this post we’re going to look at two charts. Together, they’ll show just how GOAT the US is right now. It’s a little bit like the Patriots. Yeah that’s a pretty outrageous comparison but hold on one second. Everyone is critical of both, yet both just keep winning. The US economy continues to get berated and is arguably why Donald Trump won the election. Yet once you see these two charts you’ll be texting all your friends “this economy is lit bro!”
1) The number of new people needing unemployment benefits has dropped to a 43-year low. But maybe even more profound is the fact that this number has been falling for 8 straight years. If you look at the data since its inception, Jobless Claims have never dropped for so long. Sit back, take this chart in, and think about all the negative headlines you still see to this day about the economy:
2) This next chart shows how many people are stuck on unemployment and continue to file for benefits. One of the hardest tasks for policy makers is to get those who are chronically unemployed back to being employed. Overtime people forget skills, lose touch with working hours, and fall deeper into the unemployment cycle. This chart shows something really positive. It shows how that problem is potentially getting solved:
There you have it.
Two charts to show how this is the greatest job market modern society has ever seen. But also two charts to show how the most ridiculous comparison ever actually makes sense. GOAT, meet GOAT.
