Hurrah! Job growth continues – but it is a new type of job growth. The increase in employment has been good for the economic news in general, but not as much for individuals. Wage growth has slowed. Optimism is improving, but slowly. It turns out that the job growth has been in the Gig Economy. Conventional jobs have actually declined. That means more people are working, but they are more likely self-employed, which also means they are making less, spending more on taxes, paying for their own benefits, and having less to spend than typical employees. The result is an improvement in an economic measure, but not an improvement in the economy, and lowered expectations from workers.
“the number of workers employed in alternative arrangements increased by 9.4 million (66.5%) from 14.2 million in February 2005 to 23.6 million in November 2015.
“Thus, employment in traditional jobs (standard employment arrangements) actually slightly declined by 0.4 million (0.3%) from 126.2 million in February 2005 to 125.8 million in November 2015,” -Fusion
(Click on the chart for the link.)
Pretending Not To Panic 
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