Gary Burtless
Brookings
United States
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Past articles by Gary:
The trend toward inequality has slowed, but so has income growth
Gary Burtless finds that while inequality growth has slowed, so has income growth. → Read More
New analysis turns up surprise on long-term wage trends
Gary Burtless reviews a recent study that found male workers have seen little income growth. → Read More
Unseasonable weather can fully explain the weak jobs report for April
April’s jobs gains, released this morning, indicate that the U.S. added only 160,000 new jobs, “40,000 fewer than had been expected.” This number was produced using a standard filter known as seasonal adjustment. Each month, many thousands of workers across the U.S. lose their jobs, while others find themselves newly employed. The net number of jobs created or lost in all this activity is an… → Read More
The rising longevity gap between rich and poor Americans
The past few months have seen a flurry of reports on discouraging trends in life expectancy among some of the nation’s struggling populations. Different researchers have emphasized different groups and have tracked longevity trends over different time spans, but all have documented conspicuous differences between trends among more advantaged Americans compared with those in worse circumstances. → Read More
However you look at it, March 2016 was another strong month for job growth
March’s jobs gains, released this morning, mark 66 straight months of significant positive jobs growth in the U.S., with nearly three times as many jobs added in March 2016 compared to March 2015. → Read More
What Trump and the rest get wrong about Social Security
Of all the presidential candidates, Trump’s plan is the most straightforward and least credible. → Read More
Let's put a retirement savings plan in every workplace
Critics of the nation's retirement system regularly complain that the system is in crisis. Too many private companies fail to offer their employees a retirement plan. Many employees who are covered by a plan fail to make contributions to it. Those who do make contributions may contribute too little or invest their savings unwisely. The end result: Many of us will reach retirement age with… → Read More
Robust job gains and a continued rebound in labor force participation
The latest BLS jobs report shows little sign employers are worried about the future strength of the recovery. Both the employer and household surveys suggest U.S. employers have an undiminished appetite for new hires. Nonfarm payrolls surged 242,000 in February, and upward revisions BLS employment estimates for January added almost 21,000 to estimated payroll gains in that month. → Read More
Economy “officially” adds 242,000 jobs in February, 261,000 using an alternative measure
February’s jobs gains, released this morning, mark 65 straight months of (significant) positive jobs growth in the U.S. (going back to October of 2010). Each month, many thousands of workers across the U.S. lose their jobs, while others find themselves newly employed. The net number of jobs created or lost in all this activity is an important indicator of the nation’s economic health. But the… → Read More
Encouraging February jobs report shows rebound in labor force growth
Payroll employment grew by 242,000, which is above the recent average and a bit above expectations. Growth was widespread across sectors, including high-wage sectors like professional services and education, middle-wage sectors like construction and health care, and low-wage sectors like retail and leisure/hospitality. Employment growth in the two previous months was also revised upward to… → Read More
The growing life-expectancy gap between rich and poor
Researchers have long known that the rich live longer than the poor. Evidence now suggests that the life expectancy gap is increasing, at least here the United States, which raises troubling questions about the fairness of current efforts to protect Social Security. → Read More
Alternative seasonal and weather adjustments may shed some light on mixed January jobs report
Each month, many thousands of workers across the U.S. lose their jobs, while others find themselves newly employed. The net number of jobs created or lost in all this activity is an important indicator of the nation’s economic health. But the raw number of jobs created or lost from one month to the next doesn’t say much about the underlying economy. Rather, many of these month-to-month changes… → Read More
Job gains slow in January, but signs of a rebound in labor force participation
For the first time in the recovery, January's job report revealed signs of a rebound in the prime-age labor force participation rate. Gary Burtless looks at today's jobs numbers to explore that and other good news. → Read More
Bureau of Labor Statistics updates its seasonal adjustment procedure for 2016 with release of January data
This year’s monthly job gains and losses can indicate how the economy is doing once they are corrected to account for the seasonal patterns, using a process called seasonal adjustment. Each month in this blog, I apply an alternative filter that incorporates a longer window than the BLS. I argue for this alternative seasonal adjustment procedure in my paper “Unseasonal Seasonals?” → Read More
Job gains even more impressive than numbers show
Gary Burtless responds to a recent analysis of 2015 job gains to argue that scaling 2015's monthly employment gains by growth in the working-age population makes the raw monthly totals more impressive, not less. → Read More
Alternative methods for measuring income and inequality
Editor’s note: The following remarks were prepared and delivered by Gary Burtless at a roundtable sponsored by the American Tax Policy Institute on January 7, 2016. Video of Burtless’ remarks are also available on the Institute’s website. Download the related slides at the right. We are here to discuss income inequality, alternative ways to evaluate its size and trend over time, and how it might… → Read More
U.S. job market goes from strength to strength as global stock markets tremble
Sizeable job gains were recorded in construction, transportation, motion pictures, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality industries, and health care. Gains were modest or negligible in manufacturing and retail trade. Payrolls fell for the twelfth consecutive month in mining, primarily as a result of continued weakness in world energy prices. → Read More
Job market news just keeps getting better
Employment rose, unemployment fell, and for the first time in the past seven years, 2015’s real hourly pay climbed faster than 2 percent. → Read More
In November jobs report, real earnings and payrolls improve but labor force participation remains weak
While there's still no bounce-back from the recession and post-recession drop in labor for participation among prime-age adults, there's still lots of good news in November's jobs numbers. Employment gains remain steady and faster than the pace needed to keep the unemployment rate from falling. → Read More
Generational war over the budget? Hard to see it in the numbers
In an op-ed for Real Clear Markets, Gary Burtless writes that there is, in fact, a "trend toward higher public spending on [those over age 65 that] has been underway for at least five decades, but the predicted cuts in spending on the young have yet to materialize." → Read More