Courtesy of Mish.
Lakshman Achuthan at the ECRI made an interesting Tweet today. “Recovery is Focused on Those Without High School Diploma“.
The Tweet refers to his January post Fresh Data: Cheap Labor.
Let’s investigate Achuthan’s claim and update the data as of today’s jobs numbers. First, let’s take a look at his chart and comments from January.
Achuthan comments ….
Since 2011, when the E/P ratio for those with less than a high school diploma bottomed, that metric has regained almost two-thirds of its recessionary losses (orange line in chart). But the E/P ratio for high school or college graduates – i.e., eight out of nine American adults – has not recovered any of its recessionary losses, and has barely budged in four years (purple line). This data underscores how the jobs recovery has been spearheaded by cheap labor, with job gains going disproportionately to the least educated — and lowest-paid — workers, many of whom have to work multiple jobs to make ends meets. This is scarcely supportive of Janet Yellen’s description of a “much healthier” consumer in justifying the Fed rate hike.
That looks interesting but the dual vertical axis levels distort the picture. Let’s update the picture with current data, on one chart.
Employment Population Levels by Education Level
