Record Numbers Of Retired Americans Are Working Part-Time Jobs
Every other aspect of the US economy may be going to hell in a handbasket, with an acute manufacturing recession starting to spill over into the services sector, but at least the US jobs number is "stellar", right?
Wrong.
We showed one way how the BLS fudges the number higher, when we reported on Friday that of the surge in December jobholders, a whopping 324,000 of these new "jobs" were by multiple jobholders, as in 1 person = 2 (or more) jobs, effectively cutting the job gain in half (or worse). Worse, the total number of jobholders surged to 7.738 million, just shy of an all time high, and the highest since August 2008.
And then there is this.
According to a Bloomberg report, a record number Americans who are retired (or are collecting Social Security) worked part-time last month.
In December, a record 2.6 million workers had either reached full retirement or restricted themselves to work-weeks of 34 hours or less due to Social Security income limitations. Individuals can collect Social Security and work with no limit on earnings once they reach full retirement age. However, if they receive Social Security before full retirement age they will lose some of their benefit if they exceed the annual earnings limit. For 2016, this cap is $15,720. The penalty is a $1 deduction in Social Security for every $2 earned above the limit.
What is most disturbing, is that this is the "data" the Fed uses to justify to the world that its decision to hike rates was the right one. Meanwhile, anyone who is not an economist will take on look at the above charts and realize why 7 years ino the "recovery" there has been no wage growth, and why the Fed is shooting itself both in the leg and in the head by hiking at this point.
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Work is the only way to learn anything.
My wife and I retired on Social Security last year at 62. She has a part-time consulting gig, but I take care of the house, the garden, the chickens, and the necessary maintenance. We bought a little house in upstate NY where the neighbors are white, the taxes are low, and the cost of living fits very well into the SS we qualified for. Neither of us have private or public pensions. Our savings go toward fun stuff or extra food for the storage shelves. We travelled a lot ten years ago, so we don't have to do that in a muzzie world. We are content to fish, grow a good percentage of our own food, and putter around. When we were working, the two of us contributed a total of about $200k to the social security system. Since we were both self-employed for 25 years, we paid both halves of the tax. Therefore, I have no guilt or qualms about taking my money back as SS payments. Yeah, I know it's a ponzi scheme, but I am taking early payouts so that we can get as much of our money out as possible before the system implodes. Oh, and because we are both SS recipients with essentially no taxable income, we qualify for a BC/BS health insurance policy that costs us $40.00 a month. Fourty dollars! Since we used to spend over 10k a year on insurance when we were working, I have no qualms about paying so little for insurance. I am following all of the rules that were put into place by the educated idiots in WashDC. I am willing to make less, but we have everything we need. I guess nobody down there ever dreamt that people like us would settle for less in order to make more on the dole... Don't like it? Fix it. Until then, I'll just wait for my monthly check.
Good that you're taking early payouts from a system doomed to fail. I'll never see one penny of what I've put in. It will all be gone one day and they'll just say, "oops." and that will be that.
See if you qualify for SNAP as well. I've been advocating for years on ZeroHedge....( when I went by a different name ) .....that the way to bring down the system is for everyone to join the "Free Shit Army" and sink it from within.
Screw pride anymore. One must think tactically.
i up arrowed you.
did you post as "cloward" or "piven"?
Like the "Reverse Flash", I am the Reverse Cloward and Piven. Become the poison pill in the belly of the beast.
Yes... see if you can get food stamps. I get about $450 a months worth.
"A Penny Save is a Penny Earned"
You've received a $5,400 / year raise......tax free. Bonus.
So because the boomer generation failed to provide for their own retirement, youngsters are no longer able to gain early work experience... Or cash.
I do not think they failed to provide, I think that what they put aside, was stolen.
WAAAHH!
When I was a youngster, I started my own newspaper route (and rode in on my bicycle, even on freezing days), and worked as a janitor, garbage collector (throwing those big garbage cans into the rear-loading garbage truck), ditch digger, electrician's helper (pulling wire through endless conduit), yard mower (with a push mower, not a riding mower), draftsman (in cigar-smoke filled rooms with no windows), furniture and appliance delivery truck worker, warehouseman, car washer, gas station attendant, bagboy, produce department worker (throwing around 50-pound crates of vegetables and fruit, and picking the rotten ones out, and mopping the floors endlessly), fast-food worker (mopping endlessly), chemical lab tech, and electronics parts tester. All low-paying jobs, but I learned something from every one of them. The world doesn't owe me a living.
This article is crap. The FED is not shooting itself because the FED is neither concerned about unemployment nor does low interest rates have the capacity to improve employment. The FED is only concerned about the wellbeing of the banks.
What about as a percent of population. I'd expect this number to increase not only with the increasing population but with the population bubble of baby boomers. Especially since they all co signed for this pier kids student loans and remortgaged thier homes into thier 70s. In fact I think working part time is healthy. Sure not part time in a coal mine but something light.
Giving the system your labor is never healthy. Plant a garden if you're bored. Learn to play a musical instrument. But don't feed the beast.
Gardening keeps me busy from April until September, along with woodworking.
Nothing surprising here. USA is fast becoming a fourth world country and this is just more proof of this fact.