Friday, February 13, 2015

Job Growth Is a Poor Measure of Economic Health

In a global era of demographic decline, the quality of employment trumps the number of jobs.

Theme: Ironic demographics

Subject Article: "Survey: 'Livability' attracts few people to Pittsburgh."

Other Links: 1. "Pittsburgh's Hidden Economic Boom."
2. "Unlike state, Pittsburgh region gains in relocations."
3. "How Local Assets Become Global Assets."
4. "Impact of Migration on the Pittsburgh Workforce."

Postscript: This week, I've been revisiting the idea that real estate markets and labor markets function in similar ways. A major caveat to the models of real estate markets pointing out how regulations bid up prices concerns neighborhood substitutability. If you live in a neighborhood that wouldn't pass muster with someone living in a wealthy enclave, then building more housing for the wealthy won't make your housing cheaper. Likewise, if there is a shortage of software engineers bidding up salaries, then only local labor that is substituable for such jobs counts as supply. A glut of software engineers won't depress wages in other sectors of the labor force.

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