Subject: I have a theory about "jobs"
****background****

Several people on METaR were howling that Trump's policies will cause a depression, and zillions of people will be put out of work.

I propose that closing the border, and deporting many thousands of people, will have the net effect of exporting the unemployment.

I saw a piece on the wire a couple days ago that some 1.2M people have left the workforce, either deported, or left on their own.

I have proposed that the national work requirement, to qualify for Medicaid, is a form of forced labor, to force people to take low skill jobs vacated by people who have been deported. Michigan tried a Medicaid work requirement a few years ago, with the stated objective of forcing people to take jobs employers could not fill. Last week, a County Prosecutor, here in metro Detroit, proposed another forced labor scheme, by offering certain people a choice of jail or working.

Flipping around the TV dial a few days ago, I hit an interesting conversation on Yahoo's Finance channel. The guest proposed that, with so many people forced out of the workforce, employers will create fewer jobs, because they know they can't fill more jobs. She said the "job creation" number going forward may well fall into the 30,000 range, and, by 2026-27 there could be zero net job creation in several months, and that would be the new normal.

****On the wire today****

US job openings decline in July; hiring lackluster

Job openings, a measure of labor demand, dropped 176,000 to 7.181 million by the last day of July, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said in its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 7.378 million unfilled jobs.

A Reuters survey of economists expects the government's closely watched employment report on Friday will likely show nonfarm payrolls increased by 75,000 jobs in August after rising 73,000 in July. Employment gains averaged 35,000 jobs per month over the last three months compared to 123,000 during the same period in 2024, the government reported in August.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news...

Steve