The Economy (Inflation), California Unemployment, and Martin Luther King
This Week in the Economy
The big story was inflation. It went…. up. Bummer.
The annual increase in prices was 3.4%. It was 3.1% the month before.
The good news is that the annual core CPI – the price of goods and services with energy and food taken out – continued its slow decline, going from 4.0% last month to 3.9% this month. And that is good news.
I guess rising gas prices do have an effect. Who knew??
So, the bad news, good news mix continues.
The even more good news is that the Producer Price Index – the PPI – continues to decrease ever so slightly. That can have a domino effect and lead to a lower CPI down the road.
Google, Amazon, Blackrock, Pixar and other companies have announced rounds of layoffs in the hundreds.
However, Citibank announced cuts of 20,000 employees over the next two years, or roughly 8% of its workforce.
Virgin Media also announced a 20,000 person layoff by year end.
Ouch. That’s a lot of people.
What Color is Your Parachute? That’s a good book – you should check it out.
In an unrelated (or is it?) story, remote workers are losing out on promotions. I’m guessing that also comes into play when they are choosing who stays and who goes on the job-cut list.
If an employee is already not there, who’s going to miss them if they get cut and are still not there?
Many managers will overlook the more productive remote worker in favor of the worker that they get along with and know in the office. Yep, that’s a shocker too.
So keep that in mind the next time you ask to work from home.
California Unemployment
As I was surfing for information on a topic, I happened upon some unemployment numbers.
I know, not quite the clickbait many folks go for, but stay with me.
As I have said, the national unemployment rate is 3.7%. Someone asked me what it was in California and the Inland Empire.
I didn’t know for sure, so I thought I’d find out.
The unemployment rate in California is 4.9%.
The employment rate in the Inland Empire is 5.1%.
I will admit, I was a little surprised. I knew unemployment in California was higher than the national figure, but the IE?
And that’s up from 4.1% from a year ago. Wow. Something’s going on in California.
Then I saw a report that Pizza Hut will be laying off 1,200 drivers in response to the increase to the state minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 that takes place on April 1.
I’m not sure why they chose that date. A bit odd, don’t you think? I digress.
I think it makes total sense. I’m guessing that someone did the math and figured out that having Doordash make the delivery might be a little more expensive, but Pizza Hut doesn’t have to worry about any of the payroll costs, workers comp, insurance etc. With the state increasing fast food worker’s wages to $20, that just tipped it over the top.
Who knows? Some of those laid-off drivers may even get a Doordash gig.
At minimum, they will be collecting unemployment from a state fund that already is borrowing from the Feds to fund the unemployment checks.
Oh, and one more thing… effective April 1, you will be competing for your own employees as they drop of job applications at Burger King.
Or you just increase your wages to match the burger flippers.
Martin Luther King
In elementary school, I was part of a group of kids that recited the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King. It is perhaps for that reason that I admire what he strived to achieve during his shortened life through peaceful means.
As opposed to the folks that tend to riot, break storefront windows, and loot stores as part of their demonstrations. But I digress…
In 1958, Dr. King was stabbed in the chest by a woman. Affirming his nonviolent principles, he stated he felt no ill will against his attacker, although the injury was quite serious.
Ironically, that woman, Izola Ware Curry, lived to be 98, dying in 2015.
And Dr. King would be killed 10 years later in 1968.
In addition to his Dream speech, he had another speech called “What is Your Life’s Blueprint?”, given at a high school where he spoke the following, in a style and passion that only he could do:
“And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don’t just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn’t do it any better.
If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well.”
That’s called a work ethic.
We are only two weeks into the year. If you can focus on your work or job, regardless of what it is, and do your very best to get that job done, you will certainly find the rewards of your labors at year-end, and probably even sooner.
But only if you get started now.
And that’s how you start a new year.
