Much business reporting misses regular Americans

Bill Knight column for Dec. 10, 11 or 12, 2018

Accurately and consistently predicting corporate stocks – much less taking credit (or blame) for Wall Street – is like cutting diamonds in a bouncy house. But forgotten amid exclamations of a vibrant economy or sensational handwringing about volatility is news coverage that regular working people are suffering losses – in jobs – even as stock prices bounce back or tiny improvements in wages start a crawl back from the abyss of stagnation.

Sometimes, it seems that workers just can’t win for losing.

Shown in last week’s heavy losses – all three major U.S. stock exchanges closed deep in the red Dec. 4 – Wall Street seems to be heading toward a “correction.” That usually, ultimately falls on the shoulders of people who work for a living instead of those who amass fortunes by buying and selling shares of companies.

The worst downturn in seven years, last Tuesday finished with the Dow plunging 799.36 points (3.1 percent); Nasdaq dropping 283.09 (3.8 percent); and the S&P falling 3.2 percent, a slide that could eventually mean hiring freezes, layoffs or bankruptcies.

Yes, things would be getting better if they weren't going so badly.

For example, a snapshot of U.S. county employment and wages from April-June, released last month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, seems to show that wage improvements in a handful of geographic areas, such as McLean County, may have actually contributed to increases in joblessness.

McLean overall showed wages rising 9 percent then, when its employment fell 2 percent.

Statewide, the percentage change in wages from the 2nd quarter of 2017 to this year was 3.4 percent, while employment mostly held steady, growing a meager 0.8 percent over the same period.

Meanwhile, the most recent national unemployment rate was marginally unchanged, at 3.7 percent, BLS said. However, joblessness actually increased slightly, according to Economic Policy Institute analyst Heidi Shierholz, who said, “The unemployment rate rose 0.06 percentage points in October, from 3.68 percent to 3.74 percent.”

The nation had 6.08 million jobless – 111,000 more than the month before, BLS reported.

Illinois in October saw an increase in unemployment to 4.8 percent, up from 4.5 percent a year ago, according to the state Department of Employment Security, which estimated an additional 8,700 jobless people.

The only exceptions to worsening employment in Illinois were the Chicago area and Danville, both of which had slight gains in employment.

In October in McLean County – where the number of nonfarm jobs was unchanged, at 95,000 – the jobless rate went downhill, from 3.5 percent to 4.1 percent.

Likewise, other metro areas in the state saw higher unemployment:

Peoria weakened 0.3 percent, to 4.8 percent; the Quad Cities worsened 0.1 percent, to 3.9 percent; and Springfield deteriorated 0.3 percent, to 4.1 percent.

As far as major corporations and companies of special interest to Illinois, Tuesday’s nose-dive saw these precipitous declines: Amazon -103.6, Google -53.89 and Netflix -14.97, with Boeing -17.46, Caterpillar -9.63 and John Deere -10.62. Thursday was tumultuous, too, with Amazon, Google, Netflix and John Deere all recovering slightly, but Boeing and Caterpillar sliding further, -10.60 and -0.97 respectively.

As forecasts get wild and looser, the labor market is getting tighter, helping to get employers to raise pay. However, whether it’s cutbacks, consolidations or closings, the number of available jobs make it tougher on everyday Americans.

Like financial analysts trying to be precise (or at least comforting) for investors, business journalists trying to be complete, fair and accurate can be daunting, like doing electrical work in an earthquake.

But: Where is the news about the Rest of Us.