The Nation's Financial Condition

[Farfromgeneva]

Not everything on the internet is true, in fact it likely boils down to union vs non-union skilled trades. My neighbor is high up in the Pipefitter union....they just had their highest apprenticeship applicant pool in history, similarly in the electrical apprenticeship. And those already journeyman, know they can make an easy six figure living on their own, without needing to even be hired by a business owner, many have flown the coup to go on their own.

Non-union skilled trades have also screwed themselves, hiring one or two top guys then backfilling with unskilled manpower...makes the books look good but is a disaster on the backend. Like buying a new house, then seeing the horrible craftsmanship that will cost you more down the road.

As I mentioned earlier.....none of the infrastructure plans move fast or demand a ton of labor immediately...it is trickle in employment by contractors already staffed to fulfill the work with low margins to keep the books moving. Knowing the feds, will eff up the design and change orders will get the margins back in the teens and 20's. Unlike Data centers which are often bid as cost-plus.

My FILs company (he’s a 7-10% owner, 16 guys own 88% or the company) uses only IBEW labor and keeps roughly 1,000 folks employed year round on various projects. I know the pay scale and they most certainly don’t all make six figures. Takes min journeyman level to get there, possibly a rung lower with a ton of hours put in but that’s rare. This company does a ton of data centers, any municipal project including Mercedes Benz Dome, Phillips Arena, SunTrust Park, Marietta Courthouse, Hartsfield international expansion etc. they don’t mess around w tight margin project like multifamily but have an international division that has done things like build a micro grid for the navy in Hawaii and manage power plants for the military in Afghanistan. It’s very much a mix of cost plus and GMP type. Amazingly they have garbage technology and workflow and a moron who’s retiring as CFO and yet make high teens EBITDA margin on $400-$700mm. However, the margin comes from the ancillary services post construction like maintenance for hospitals etc and the big projects are more like 9-14%, call it 12-13%.

I suppose Atlanta is close to DMV in wage scale. I believe the base wage for a journeyman in DMV is ~$45/hr...$90k/yr with no OT or bonuses. Now with union electricians there is a loophole where you can hire an "A" Mechanic and have a few "R" mechanics work under you....for significantly lower wages. It is often how they are awarded projects with two different wage scales. Non-Union companies also love Davis-Bacon projects, they finally get to earn prevailing wage, with certified payroll.

Close think it’s like $40 but ballpark anyways. They’re a “family owned” company so fairly generous in general. Third generation private ownership and I can see the cracks going forward.

[Brooklyn]

now I see why you're laughing - new jobs created were actually 850,000

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-s-g ... 1625230019


hahaha!

[jhu72]

Seem 59% of Americans rate their lives as thriving. This is the highest rating in over 13 years.

[youthathletics]

Private payrolls increased by 692,000 in June, beating expectations: ADP
Source: Yahoo! Finance

Private payrolls rose more than expected in June as businesses sought out more workers to fill job openings present across the recovering economy.

ADP reported Wednesday morning that private payrolls increased by 692,000 in June for a sixth straight monthly rise. Consensus economists were looking for an increase of 600,000, according to Bloomberg consensus data. In May, private employment grew by a 886,000 jobs, according to ADP's downwardly revised print.

Recent economic data has pointed to a labor market still making strides toward recovering, but at a slowing pace compared to the start of the year. New jobless claims, for instance, have popped back above 400,000 per week – a level well off pandemic-era highs, but persistently elevated compared to pre-virus levels.

And purchasing managers' indices from both IHS Markit and the Institute for Supply Management have pointed to slowing improvements in employment after an initial reopening-fueled surge. Employers across industries have reported having trouble finding qualified workers to fill job openings, capping what has otherwise been a strong ramp-up in economic activity.

{snip}

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/adp-june ... 42029.html

tRUMP caused job losses, Biden causes job increases.

Consumer prices increased 5.4% in June from a year earlier, the biggest monthly gain since August 2008.

Real average weekly earnings decreased 1.4 percent for year ended April 2021

We are rocking it...ehh Brooksie?

[Brooklyn]

Consumer prices increased 5.4% in June from a year earlier, the biggest monthly gain since August 2008.

Real average weekly earnings decreased 1.4 percent for year ended April 2021

We are rocking it...ehh Brooksie?

In August 2008 your hero Bush_Stupid was in the White Wash House. In those days your right wing delusionals were praising him as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[Brooklyn]

Major Indexes Close at Record Highs

https://www.wsj.com/articles/global-sto ... 1625822968


Dow, S&P, Nasdaq up around 1% on the day, erasing Thursday selloff




Major U.S. indexes staged a strong rebound Friday, finishing a topsy-turvy week at fresh records.

The S&P 500 added 48.73 points, or 1.1%, to 4369.55, following its worst one-day retreat since June 18. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 448.23 points, or 1.3%, to 34870.16. The Nasdaq Composite gained 142.13 points, or 1%, to 14701.92. All three indexes closed at highs.

The strong gains Friday helped stocks narrowly avert weekly losses, pushing the major indexes toward a third consecutive week of gains.

Many investors rushed to buy the stock-market dip after Thursday’s declines, continuing a trend that has become a feature of the stock market’s rally over the past year. That desire, alongside easing concerns about the economic recovery, lifted stocks on Friday and overshadowed any worries about President Biden’s executive order to limit corporate dominance.

“It’s certainly on my list of worries that wasn’t there yesterday,” said Chris Grisanti, chief equity strategist at MAI Capital Management, referring to the executive order. But Mr. Grisanti said that for people wondering if the party is over yet: “I don’t think it is.”






Had this been Bush_Stupid or Trump_Tarded the delusionals would be celebrating.

[CU88]

President Biden
@POTUS

Since I took office six months ago, we’ve gone from 60,000 new jobs per month – to 60,000 every three days.

That’s the fastest job growth at this point in any Administration in history.

11:45 AM · Jul 19, 2021·

[youthathletics]

Great news...but that is like saying I am now catching fish in my aquarium after my mommy stocked it.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Great news...but that is like saying I am now catching fish in my aquarium after my mommy stocked it.

I don’t remember you making that observation over the past 4 years?

[youthathletics]

Great news...but that is like saying I am now catching fish in my aquarium after my mommy stocked it.

I don’t remember you making that observation over the past 4 years?

b/c at no point in time over those 4 years (or 80 plus years) were we coming out of a 12 plus month lock down.

[CU88]

Great news...but that is like saying I am now catching fish in my aquarium after my mommy stocked it.

I don’t remember you making that observation over the past 4 years?

[youthathletics]

Not a big deal...but thought this was humorous.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Not a big deal...but thought this was humorous.

It’s a riot!

[Typical Lax Dad]

Not a big deal but thought this was humorous



EDIT:

Congratulations American citizens….we broke a sacred number!

[youthathletics]

It was quite amazing, after the US economy was shut down 9 months. Hell Biden is bragging about 60k jobs daily rolling through office doors and we dropped 900 points today. #Winning

[Typical Lax Dad]

It was quite amazing, after the US economy was shut down 9 months. Hell Biden is bragging about 60k jobs daily rolling through office doors and we dropped 900 points today. #Winning

DJIA closed down 725 and has clawed some of that back after hours but you knew that.



I hope it keeps tanking….that is a fact.

[PizzaSnake]

Hope they do so, or its gonna get bumpy, campers.

"President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Congress to extend the eviction moratorium set to expire on Saturday that prohibits landlords nationwide from evicting certain tenants who fail to pay rent amid the Covid-19 pandemic."

Ready for the wheels to come off?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/29/politics ... index.html

[PizzaSnake]

So what's it going to be, immigration or Gilead?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-popula ... 1627231536

"America’s weak population growth, already held back by a decadelong fertility slump, is dropping closer to zero because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In half of all states last year, more people died than were born, up from five states in 2019. Early estimates show the total U.S. population grew 0.35% for the year ended July 1, 2020, the lowest ever documented, and growth is expected to remain near flat this year.

Some demographers cite an outside chance the population could shrink for the first time on record. Population growth is an important influence on the size of the labor market and a country’s fiscal and economic strength.

One bad year doesn’t automatically spell trouble for future U.S. demographic health. What concerns demographers is that in the past, when a weak economy drove down births, it was often a temporary phenomenon that reversed once the economy bounced back.

Yet after births peaked in 2007, they never rebounded from the nearly two-year recession that followed, even though Americans enjoyed a subsequent decade of economic growth."

Enjoyed a subsequent decade of growth? So who is this "Americans" who "enjoyed" it?

The 1%? The rest of us kept our noses above water and prayed we didn't get swamped by some azzclown's mega-yacht wake.

[PizzaSnake]

I wonder what future archaeologists (if cockroaches go in for that sort of thing), will make of things like this.



Chalk figures?

[Farfromgeneva]

Not a big deal...but thought this was humorous.

Would this be considered disinformation as I don’t recall Dow 35k in 2013?