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15 Charts That Will Restore Your Faith In The American Economy

15 Charts That Will Restore Your Faith In The American Economy
Quartz
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Quartz:

As the US takes a break Thursday to celebrate Independence Day, here is some fodder for Americans in search of reasons to be patriotic: a few charts showing how remarkably resilient the US has been lately.

It’s worth noting that the US economy isn’t all gumballs and puppy dogs. Unemployment remains high, and in recent decades it’s gotten harder to find a job to support a middle class lifestyle. Student debts are staggering. And while deficits are shrinking, the national debt remains unwieldy. Oh, and wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few.

Nevertheless, a strong economic recovery is in the works, which, in the very least, makes those formidable economic challenges easier to tackle.

Ok, so growth hasn’t exactly been gangbusters since the recession.

But job growth has been solid. Since the end of 2011, the US has averaged about 185,000 new jobs a month.

And on the whole, inflation-adjusted private wages are growing. (That’s even after wage increases spiked at the end of last year, thanks to one-off bonus payments designed to avoid tax increases.)

What’s driving wage increases has less to do with surging pay and more to do with decreasing inflation (the chart above is inflation-adjusted). That decline in inflation is partly thanks to dropping gas prices.

Due to a combination of foreclosures, refinancing and paybacks, the debt burden on US households looks much more manageable.

Meanwhile, the housing market is healing. Home sales are picking up, even though they’re far from pre-crisis peaks.

Home prices are also recovering.

Despite its recent slip, the stock market has clawed back to pre-crisis levels. Stocks are up roughly 140% since their low in early March 2009.

Rebounding housing and stock values have boosted US household net worth to record heights. (Though there are some serious caveats.)

As a result, US consumers are feeling more confident.

And when US consumers feel better, they buy stuff. Car sales, for instance, reached a post-crisis high last month.

There are signs that the cycle is becoming self-reinforcing. With consumers buying more, more retailers are hiring.

Likewise, bankers are seeing more demand from borrowers. Check out the Federal Reserve’s Senior Loan Officer’s survey.

As a result, the financial sector is staffing up to issue more mortgage loans. Check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ tally of jobs in “mortgage and nonmortgage credit.”

Oh, and one last thing: Oil and gas jobs abound.

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Before You Go

11 Ways Immigration Reform Helps The Economy
Reform Would Help Curb The Deficit(01 of11)
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Immigration reform would reduce the federal deficit by $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years, according to an April analysis by the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank. (credit:Getty Images)
Expelling Immigrants Is Expensive(02 of11)
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Expelling the approximately 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the United States would cost $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years, according to CNBC. That's because it costs the government more than $8,000 to deport each person. (credit:Getty Images)
Reform Would Help Fix The Social Security Problem(03 of11)
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Immigration reform would help bolster Social Security because more legal workers would mean more people contributing payroll taxes to its trust fund, according to an analysis from the Social Security administration. Undocumented workers already contribute $15 billion per year to Social Security. (credit:AP)
Immigrants Start Successful Businesses(04 of11)
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More than a quarter of technology and engineering firms started between 1995 and 2005 had a foreign-born owner, according to the Washington Post. One of the founders of Yahoo!, Jerry Yang, is an immigrant from Taiwan. (credit:AP)
Reform Would Save $410 Billion Over The Next 10 Years(05 of11)
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The immigration reform bill proposed by the "gang of eight" senators would save $410 billion over the next decade, according to an analysis from Gordon Gray, the director of fiscal policy at the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank. The savings would come largely from a boost in GDP resulting from undocumented immigrants gaining citizenship and in turn likely making more money. (credit:AP)
High-Tech Companies Say Reform Would Boost Their Bottom Line(06 of11)
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Companies like Microsoft and Google have said that immigration reform would help them by allowing for more H1B visas, a special kind of visa geared toward highly-skilled immigrants. The tech giants say they can't find enough qualified people in the U.S. to fill their staffing needs. (credit:AP)
Reform Would Boost The Wages Of Native-Born Workers(07 of11)
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U.S.-born workers see between a 0.1 and 0.6 percent boost in wages on average with an increase in immigration, according to a January report from the Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative of the nonpartisan Brookings Institution. That's because immigrant workers bring skills with them that complement those of native-born workers, leading to new jobs. (credit:AP)
Immigrants Are Entrepreneurial (08 of11)
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Immigrants are more than twice as likely than native-born Americans to start new businesses, according to a White House report on immigration reform. (credit:AP)
Reform Would Boost GDP By More Than $1 Trillion Over 10 Years(09 of11)
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Immigration reform would boost GDP by $1.5 trillion -- or about 1 percent -- over 10 years, according to an estimate from UCLA professor Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda cited by CNBC. (credit:AP)
Immigrants Create Jobs(10 of11)
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Businesses owned by immigrants created 4.7 million jobs in the U.S. in 2007, according to a White House report on immigration reform. (credit:AP)
Reform Would Bring In More Money Than It Costs In Benefits(11 of11)
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Though many critics of immigration reform argue against the cost of providing increased public benefits, analysts say higher spending is not a likely consequence. A Congressional Budget Analysis of George W. Bush's 2007 immigration reform proposal found that it would cost the government $23 billion in more public services, but bring in $48 billion in revenue, according to the Washington Post. (credit:Getty Images)
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