It's Not Our Economy That's Depressed. It's Our Spirits.

Last Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. added 431,000 jobs in March. They also adjusted January and February numbers up by 95,000 and noted that the unemployment rate fell to 3.6%. The U.S. economy has now had 11 straight months of job gains over 400,000 - something that's never happened since the government started maintaining national jobs records in 1939.

Beyond the employment numbers, BLS reports that "over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 5.6 percent." But almost no one is pointing to this news, which is a pretty BFD.

When you hear reports that an average wage gain of 5.6% isn't keeping up with 8% inflation, keep in mind that those making less than $20/hr are actually beating inflation - by a long shot.

What has been confounding pollsters and pundits for months now is that Americans still seem sour about how the economy is doing. It has become a matter of conventional wisdom to suggest that rising inflation is a bigger concern. 

But a recent poll by Navigator suggests a different problem. They found that only 28% of respondents thought that more jobs had been created in the last year. Thirty-seven percent thought that more jobs had been lost and 14% thought he labor market evened out between jobs created and jobs lost. In other words, over half of those polled (51%) were misinformed about job creation over the last year. That is an astounding discrepancy.

It is not surprising that the MAGA crowd is misinformed. Just take a look at what Rep. Lisa McClain said at the recent Trump rally in Michigan.

Rep. McClain: What we have now is a shambles. It’s a complete mess. Unemployment, 40 year high pic.twitter.com/wEaem0LF4w

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2022

But as the Navigator poll shows, Democrats and Independents are also misinformed. How does that happen? I'm going to let Eric Boehlert explain.

Just look at the relentlessly dour economic coverage. For the press, inflation remains the dominant, bad-news-for-Dems economic story. Even on Friday, the day the stellar jobs report was released, “inflation” was mentioned on cable news nearly as often as “jobs,” according to TVeyes.com.

Axios contorted itself by claiming Biden’s promise to add “millions” of new jobs (which he’s already accomplished) was being threatened because there aren’t enough workers...The home-run report itself was often depicted as a mixed bag. These were some of the glass-half-empty headlines that appeared in the wake of the latest runaway numbers:

• “America’s Job Market Is On Fire. Here’s Why It Doesn’t Feel Like It” (CNN)

• “Booming Job Growth Is a Double-Edged Sword For Joe Biden” (CNN)

• “Why a Great Jobs Report Can’t Save Joe Biden” (CNN)

• “Unemployment Hits Pandemic Low in March, But Uncertainty Looms Ahead” (Washington Post)

• “Biden Gets a Strong Jobs Report, But a Sour Mood Still Prevails” (Washington Post)

Totally normal journalism, right? The president announces another blockbuster jobs report and the press presents it as borderline bad news.

I doubt that most low-information voters pay much attention to actual numbers when it comes to employment data. But as some of those headlines suggest, there is a "mood" that prevails, regardless of the #BidenBoom. The question is whether, by focusing on what's wrong with the economy, the press is reflecting or helping to create that mood.

I would suggest that, at this point, Americans are exhausted - I know I am. We've had a rough couple of years and several things have contributed to that foul mood.

1. We finally got rid of the liar-in-chief, only to witness an attempted coup that led to a violent attack on the Capitol. 
2. The coronavirus pandemic has now been going on for a full two years - with a constant on-again/off-again resurgence.
3. Over one million people have died of COVID, leaving millions of family, friends and loved ones to grieve their loss.
4. Republicans have adopted a hate-filled politics fueled by performative trolls.
5. With an assist from right wing news, mainstream media continues to focus on what they perceive to be this administration's failure.
6. War crimes being committed by the Russians in Ukraine dominate the news.

I begin to wonder whether a lot of us aren't experiencing a kind of collective depression. If so, we can chose whether to deny it or name it. If we do the latter, it may help clarify that it is not our economy that is depressed - but our spirits. That's the beginning of the healing process.