Financial FAQs
“The number of job openings was unchanged at 6.9 million in March, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, hires increased to 5.6 million while total separations changed little at 5.4 million. Within separations, both quits (3.2 million) and layoffs and discharges (1.9 million) were little changed.’ BLS.gov
The FRED graph of the JOLTS report (U.S. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) shows the sharp decline in the number of job openings from its high of 12 million openings in 2022 at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is another sign of stagnating growth. And though stocks continue to rally to new highs, interest rates are also rising, a sign of higher inflation.
Now combine no new job growth with rising inflation and we have further signs of stagflation, the combination that stopped economic growth for most of the 1970s. It has hovered around 7 million job openings during Trump’s second term because of Donald Trump’s almost single-minded job-killing policies.
It’s not just the illegal on-again, off-again tariffs that disrupt supply chains, but the immigration sweeps taking tens of thousands of workers out of their jobs and off the streets. And most of them pay taxes that would help in reducing our record federal debt.
Cap that with all the DOGE job cuts that have eviscerated the Labor Department responsible for enforcing OSHA worker safety laws and union wage negotiations. Millions have also lost their insurance coverage because Republicans blocked renewal of subsidies that made it affordable to ordinary non-seniors.
Job formation is now at a standstill because of Trump’s anti-labor antics. It’s mostly pure greed that motivates Republicans these days who have cut social services to the bone to pay for their tax cuts.
And there is plenty of time for stagflation to worsen as a semi-permanent feature of Trumponomics, his version of Reagonomics trickle-down economic policies, since Trump has three more years.
Inflation doesn’t disappear when economic growth picks up that is inflating stock prices. All the AI investing will ultimately increase productivity in factories that make cheaper products and need fewer workers. But who will buy its products with fewer employed workers, hence consumers, to buy its products?
Nobel Laureate economist Paul Krugman (in substack) has pointed out the damage Republican economic policies have done to the health and welfare of Americans and American workers, as well that lessens their productivity because more sick days means time lost from the workplace.
“There is a strong correlation between right-wing politics and increased mortality — stronger than many of the statistical associations that guide public health policy. Deep red states like Alabama and West Virginia have life expectancy comparable to, say, Kazakhstan.”
I’ve written in the past about the dumbing down of the Republican electorate that is causing this; its refusal to rely on scientific knowledge, or support vaccines and publicly funded healthcare.
“We’re seeing the forces that keep U.S. life expectancy far below that in other rich countries, that cause Texans (for instance) to die younger than residents of Massachusetts, go into overdrive at a national level.”
This will cause the death of more Americans, further shrinking our available supply of workers. It’s already happened—just 15,000 new jobs per month were created in 2025. Professor Krugman warns the carnage will continue while inflation is soaring because of Trump’s many missteps.
“The consequences will be grim,” he warns.
Harlan Green © 2026
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