Why does the Left hate the poor and workers so much. We all knew that an increase in the minimum wage would cause an increase in joblessness and fewer jobs. The Seattle Left, defenders of the rich, proved it once. Again. Actually, 16,000 poor and inexperienced workers are not holding jobs in Seattle thanks to the Left defense of the rich and powerful.
“Early evidence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Seattle’s monthly employment, the number of unemployed workers, and the city’s unemployment rate through December 2015 suggest that since last April when the first minimum wage hike took effect: a) the city’s employment has fallen by more than 11,000, b) the number of unemployed workers has risen by nearly 5,000, and c) the city’s jobless rate has increased by more than 1 percentage point (all based on BLS’s “not seasonally adjusted basis”).
Moreover, this occurred when the surrounding area was still adding jobs.”
In November the California Left will be able to assure hundreds of thousands not to have jobs or to lose jobs—we can create a Depression in California with just one vote by approving a $15 minimum wage—will you vote to make people unemployable? I won’t.
Following Minimum Wage Rate Hike, Seattle Employment Declines…Unexpectedly!
Lawrence Persons BattleSwam Blog, 2/27/16
Remember how liberals crowed about Seattle’s minimum wage hike was raising people out of poverty without any negative economic effects whatsoever?
Early evidence from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Seattle’s monthly employment, the number of unemployed workers, and the city’s unemployment rate through December 2015 suggest that since last April when the first minimum wage hike took effect: a) the city’s employment has fallen by more than 11,000, b) the number of unemployed workers has risen by nearly 5,000, and c) the city’s jobless rate has increased by more than 1 percentage point (all based on BLS’s “not seasonally adjusted basis”).
Moreover, this occurred when the surrounding area was still adding jobs:
While the city of Seattle experienced a sharp drop in employment of more 11,000 jobs between April and December last year [employment] in Seattle’s neighboring suburbs outside the city limits (Seattle MSA employment minus Seattle city employment) increased over that period by nearly 57,000 jobs and reached a new record high in November 2015 before falling slightly in December.
[Additional] evidence showing that while jobs in the city of Seattle were tanking starting last April, employment in the suburbs surrounding Seattle was increasing steadily to a new record high in November. That departure in employment trends: job declines inside the city limits of Seattle compared to increasing employment outside the city limits suggests the possibility that the difference in labor costs could have been a contributing factor.
Strangely enough, once again the economic laws of supply and demand are not repealed when liberals find them inconvenient.
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