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”).
Those figures are based on employment data for the city of Seattle
only (not the Seattle MSA or MD), and are available from the BLS website here (data
are “not seasonally adjusted”).
How
can we be sure that the increase in minimum wage is to blame? Employment in the
neighboring suburbs of the city have hit a record high:
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/hey_seattle_hows_that_15_minimum_wage_working_out_for_ya.html#ixzz40jXN7SBw
