MicroComputers for the Social Sciences

eople who take longer to get into career-track positions, or who start out earning very low wages, may never

make up that lost financial ground.

• The buyer paid low fees in the application and approval process. • The interest rate was low.

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The report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, provides the total number of people hired and laid off each month. It's different from the department's monthly jobs report, which provides each month's net job gain or loss and the unemployment rate. By quantifying total hiring and layoffs, the JOLTS report paints a fuller picture of what employers are doing.

The reality is we’re still in the doldrums, and the most recent data gives cause for serious worry. Almost all the forward movement in the economy is now coming from consumers —  whose spending is 70 percent of economic activity. But wages are still going nowhere, which means consumer spending will slow because consumers just don’t have the money to spend. 

The Fed is keeping interest rates artificially low, allowing consumers to get low home-equity loans and to borrow against the rising values of their homes. Needless to say, this trend, too, is unsustainable.

Over 90 percent of the value of the stock market — including 401(k)s and IRAs — is held by the wealthiest 10 percent of the population.

Recently the income range has been described as between $32,000 and $64,000 a year, between $50,000 and $122,000, and between $20,000 and $102,000.