BCT Editorial – 6/10/08

This page was last updated on June 14, 2008.

Deep funk; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 10, 2008.

The editorial leads off with “The nation’s economy continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate.” How can this be? Haven’t we been told for years we’ve been in economic times not seen since the Great Depression?

The editorial says, “The unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in Maxy [sic], the biggest monthly increase since February 1986, and it is expected to climb to 6 percent or higher early next year, The Associated Press reported. While 5.5 percent is not high by historical standards, it is bad news in the context of the times.”

What the editorial failed to note is the vast majority of the unemployment rate increase was for teenagers. You know, the group that wasn’t looking for a job in April but was in May because of high school graduation. Do you know what else the editorial failed to note? If you guessed the increase in the federal minimum wage, you win. Effective 7/24/08, the minimum wage will have increased 25% (from $5.25 to $6.55/hr) since May 2007. Mix an artificial 25% wage increase with a slow economy and you get a jump in unemployment at the low end of the pay scale because businesses don’t want to add employees at inflated wages.