A top economist at the ADP Research Institute slapped down the asinine leftist narrative that the United States is experiencing explosive jobs growth. ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson joined CNBC Squawk Box following the shocking news Jan.12 that inflation had spiked a whopping 7 percent year-over-year in December, the highest level since 1982.
After noting that real wage earnings, “which are negative,” Richardson said whatever wage increases the media has been propping up as a bellwether for a peachy economy was driven by “labor shortages.” Richardson then dropped the hammer: “The economy — and this is an important point — hasn’t added one single job from the 2019 high watermark. Not one. All the jobs that we have seen gained are recovered jobs that were lost.” She continued: “We are not yet producing new jobs. In fact, we’re still about nearly four million jobs short. So these wage gains are coming on top of a shrinking workforce.”
So much for CNN’s recent whitewash of poor December jobs numbers. “Even so, 2021 will go down in history as a year of record-breaking jobs growth: America added 6.4 million jobs last year, the most since records started in 1939. Every single month brought jobs gains,” CNN wrote earlier this month. Yikes. [Emphasis added.]
Richardson also took down another media talking point that wage gains were drivers of inflation. “[Wage gains are] not being fueled by productivity enhancements. What’s driving inflation right is now is the input shortages and the labor shortages, and not productivity,” Richardson said. “[W]ages are going to be a false metric. It’s not driving inflation.”
Richardson dished out more red pills to CNBC and it’s viewers about the dilapidated state of the economy:
[T]he fact that more people are sitting on the sidelines is problematic. That the labor force participation hasn’t returned … despite record numbers of job openings. So, we’re not in a situation where there isn’t demand for labor. We know that there is. There isn’t a supply for some reason.
Richardson also even hinted that companies may turn to automation technology to deal with ongoing labor shortages: "Companies are going to pay higher wages and make do with fewer workers,” she said. “That’s what I’m watching out for, that companies will actually adjust to these wage pressures. They’ll automate the functions that they can automate, and people will be left further and further behind in a more digitized economy."
Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they tell the truth about the atrocious economy and labor shortages under President Joe Biden.
