Job Openings Down 1.1 Million

[Chuck]

And what bottleneck is over? We still can't get materials and labor. I'm running at half capacity because of those issues.

There is no supply shortage, just poor logistics planning by suppliers. You've got a temporary shortage, while others are facing a glut, with companies having goods they can't sell and clogging warehouses and using trailers and shipping containers as storage for lack of anywhere to put all the crap. Democrats didn't cause that, insane JIT Madness did. Nobody built up their local inventories and got caught short. That's not a govt. problem, and neither are the fake 'labor shortage claims. The Feds have been subsidizing truck driver training heavily for decades, yet the idiots still claim there is a 'shortage'; we all know they're full of $#@! and can't run drivers off fast enough, because hey, the schools turn out thousands of then every week. There must be 20 CDLs for every truck by now. If you can't find and keep good help it's your crappy work environment and high turnover rates, not any ' labor shortage'.

[Peter1469]

Wages always lag inflation, they never lead it. In the case of 'minimum wage' it has lagged inflation by a huge margin since the 1970's, so the Right can't keep sniveling about 'poor people make too much money' and be taken seriously. The GOP loved outsourcing as many high productivity jobs as they can and replacing those they can't with green card workers for decades, so they can't snivel about imaginary 'labor shortages' and blame Democrats either.

Wages lagged inflation in Jan 2021 when CPI was 1.4%?

[Chuck]

Wages lagged inflation in Jan 2021 when CPI was 1.4%?

It severely lagged inflation that year and every year preceding it. Wages never caught up with inflation by that year or any other. $15 an hour is far below the $22 to $27 an hour it would be adjusted for real inflation, which the govt itself has a vested interest in lying about as well. Labor is as cheap or cheaper now than it was in the 1950's in adjusted 1996 dollars.