The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the job openings and labor report for August today [DATA HERE].  The data shows that 4.3 million U.S. workers voluntarily quit their jobs in the month of August.  This is a significant jump from prior.

The “Quits” section [Table 4 breakdown] shows quits increased in August to 4.3 million (+242,000). The quits rate increased to a series high of 2.9 percent. Quits increased in accommodation and food services (+157,000); wholesale trade (+26,000); and state and local government education (+25,000). Quits decreased in real estate and rental and leasing (-23,000). The number of quits increased in the South and Midwest regions:

While this data is interesting and significant, it is only one data point within the larger U.S. main street economy.  Rather than me extrapolating on this data, I would like to hear your perspective based on your own local feeling about what is going on in your area.

Key points of reference would include:

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An anonymous worker from the West Coast Port of Los Angeles came forward on “The Stew Peters Show” to discuss the claimed issues around the cargo ship backlogs.  {Direct Rumble Link} As the port worker noted, based on his 18-years working there, there is no supply disruption on the unloading end of the supply chain; though they are a little backed-up, but the port is offloading at a high capacity.

The interview is interesting because the ground report contradicts the popular narrative about COVID impacts on the current supply chain.  There are ample goods flowing into the supply chain from the ports, yet there are claims of shortages at the warehouse and distribution level. WATCH

Stew Peters accurately reminds his audience that no nation generates and exports as much raw material foodstuff as the United States.   This is a key point seemingly overlooked by most media.  The U.S. exports around $73 billion in food products annually. The next closest food export nation Germany isn’t even close at $34 billion.

In very general terms, about one-third of U.S. food exports are North/Central America (Canada, Mexico, etc) exports; approximately one-third go west (Asia) and about one-third go east (Europe).   There have been no reported issues with those shipments departing the U.S.

However, one point worth noting, by the LA dock worker, is the influence of predictive orders or automated-purchases based on historic norms and patterns.  I think that overheard note by the worker was somewhat misconstrued, and a correct interpretation could explain part of the backlog of container vessels offshore.

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People inside Southwest Airlines are speaking out carefully and pointing out why there are so many flight disruptions.   Essentially, the background issues are what were discussed earlier.  Pilots are pushing back against vaccine mandates; and if you think about the curriculum vitae of a typical pilot, it makes sense.

A big percentage of commercial airline pilots are former military pilots.  That group of people carry a strong disposition toward the principles of patriotism, service, liberty and freedom.

It is a simple truism that upsets leftists, but it makes sense for this specifically skilled workforce group to be the tip of the push back spear.

Alex Berenson provides some background details after being contacted by a Southwest pilot: “The pilot emailed following the first Southwest post today (and provided his SWA ID to prove his identity). He asked that I paraphrase the email.

Essentially, the union cannot organize or even acknowledge the sickout, because doing so would make it an illegal job action. Years ago, Southwest and its pilots had a rough negotiation, and the union would not even let the pilots internally discuss the possibility of working-to-rule (which would have slowed Southwest to a crawl).

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released the September jobs report [DATA HERE] showing a dismal 194,000 jobs added against a financial media and Wall Street expectation of 500,000 jobs.  [CNBC Apoplectic]   The labor participation rate in the worker economy overall has not moved since Biden’s inauguration, and stands at 61.6%.

Digging into the numbers, what is happening is exactly what we ¹should expect.  Outside the immediacy of private sector durable goods retailers seeing a pull back in consumer purchasing due to inflation (which we continue to point out is the critical issue); the local economies impacted by a declining tax base are key early indicators of contracting economic activity.  Wage gains are not keeping up with inflation.

Inside the data, you will note [Table B-1] a significant decline in Local Government Education of -144,000 jobs.  Obviously the collapse of in-school teaching leads to less jobs in this sector overall. However, the drop happened at the exact same time students were returning to a new school year, and this drop is also reflected year-over-year.  Schools were impacted by COVID in Sept 2020 more than schools are impacted by COVID in Sept 2021, yet this year the jobs are completely gone.  Something bigger is happening in this sector.

Additionally, healthcare services show a major drop in employment (-37k) specifically as it relates to elderly care and nursing homes.   All the sub-sectors of elder care are significantly lower in employment.

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Joe Biden did it again today.  A month after the first announcement, the White House occupant claimed again a Dept of Labor rule (via OSHA) is forthcoming, yet no such process appears to be taking place.  This ploy now seems very purposeful, because without an actual policy or regulation visibly in place, state attorneys general cannot file a lawsuit or request an injunction.

As long as Biden keeps threatening a DOL worker vaccination rule sometime in the future, many employers will take action to require worker vaccination.   This seems to be the actual strategy; bolstered by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki caught off-guard last week when asked about it.

Psaki had no idea how to answer the question about any OSHA activity not taking place (link).  Obviously Psaki didn’t expect the question, but it was also obvious that no background conversation had ever taken place amid the White House communication team.

Perhaps responding to an awakening on that issue, Joe Biden gave a speech today begging people to get vaccinated and again warning that a federal vaccine mandate for all workers was coming:

TRANSCRIPT – […] The Labor Department is going to shortly issue an emergency rule — which I asked for several weeks ago, and they’re going through the process — to require all employees [employers] with more than 100 people, whether they work for the federal government or not — this is within a — in the purview of the Labor Department — to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated or face testing at least once a week.

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Raw material foodstuff price contracts are expiring, and the new purchasing prices will be significantly higher than current.  As these contracts refresh, the new higher prices immediately enter the food supply chain.  CTH has been warning readers to stock up on non-perishable items as this next wave of food price increases is going to be much bigger than even the prior 8%/avg jumps; and there is absolutely no end in sight.

Also, as more large municipal regions (megalopolis metropolitan areas like New York City and Los Angeles) begin enforcing a vaccine passport to eat in restaurants, the demand for meals at home will remain high.  Supermarkets again will fill the void in the diet of consumers who choose to remain at home instead of eating out.

The current demand on retail food products is likely visible to you in the form of bare shelves and minimal inventory.

Grocery retailers operate on paper thin gross profit margins and rely on fast turns of multiple penny profit items to add up to net profit income.  Technology has helped modern grocery supply chains to be very thin.

An inventory shortage arises when demand on the retail grocery industry spikes – which is what we have seen with COVID impacts as alternative food options were forcibly closed or pressured to reduced capacity.

Conagra is one of the large food conglomerates with control over products from field to fork.  Recently, Conagra executives announced they expect food prices to climb even higher due to all of the aforementioned impacts, along with large price increases in fuel and energy.

Wall Street Journal […] Conagra said Thursday it expects gross inflation—which doesn’t take into account hedging—to be about 11% for fiscal 2022, versus its earlier estimate of 9%. The company plans to continue adjusting prices and cutting costs, and said its prices likely will rise 4% or more during the current fiscal year.

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Kentucky Senator Rand Paul confronted wildly political Health and Human Service Secretary Xavier Becerra during a Senate Health Committee hearing on Thursday.

Senator Paul took exception to the hubris, arrogance and verbal attacks on the American electorate by HHS Secretary Becerra, and provided him an opportunity to apologize for his characterizations.  The fact that those behind Joe Biden installed Becerra as HHS secretary was a key indicator they always intended to weaponize the fear of COVID-19.

Becerra is a far-left communist traveler in the mold of those who shaped Barack Obama.  As an outcome of his ideology, Becerra’s job is to weaponize the weight of the healthcare system to attain political objectives.  It is good to see a high visibility senator confront that reality.  WATCH:

CTH has been warning about the Chicago network behind Biden and their objective.  We have accurately predicted their moves, but what we cannot determine is how the larger American electorate will respond to these encroachments.

[December 2020] Why is COVID-19 being disproportionately hyped as such a dangerous threat, when the reality of the statistical danger is much less than the intense level of hype?… That is the key question.

Susan Rice?….

White House negotiators Brian Deese and Susan Rice leave Pelosi’s office ignoring all questions. pic.twitter.com/JUWaHzUM4H

— Sophia Cai (@SophiaCai99) September 30, 2021

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Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats are attempting to change the OSHA fines within the section of labor law that applies directly to the mandatory COVID vaccine.  The scale of the fines is massive against any business that does not comply with the anticipated OSHA rule which is yet unannounced; and they are attempting to slip the OSHA change into the massive $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill.

If this OSHA change becomes law, the Biden administration will force American businesses to choose between vaccinating their employees, testing them weekly for Covid-19, or going bankrupt under crippling OSHA fines.

(Forbes) […] Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s House quietly tucked an enforcement mechanism into their $3.5 trillion “reconciliation” bill, passed it out of the Budget Committee, and sent it to the House floor.

Buried on page 168 of the House Democrats’ 2,465-page mega bill is a tenfold increase in fines for employers that “willfully,” “repeatedly,” or even seriously violate a section of labor law that deals with hazards, death, or serious physical harm to their employees.

The increased fines on employers could run as high as $70,000 for serious infractions, and $700,000 for willful or repeated violations—almost three-quarters of a million dollars for each fine. If enacted into law, vax enforcement could bankrupt non-compliant companies even more quickly than the $14,000 OSHA fine anticipated under Biden’s announced mandate.  (read more for details)

Something uniquely telling about these remarks today before the United Nations. Something transparently obvious that most will miss.

While bragging about how the United States is the world’s leading provider of COVID-19 mRNA gene therapy, Biden notes it will take a “collective act of political will” to deal with a public health emergency. Think about that carefully. WATCH:

TRANSCRIPT – “Bombs and bullets cannot defend against COVID-19 or its future variants. To fight this pandemic, we need a collective act of science and political will. We need to act now to get shots in arms as fast as possible and to expand access to oxygen, tests, treatments to save lives around the world.

And for the future, we need to create a new mechanism to finance global health security that builds on our existing development assistance, and Global Health Thr- — and a Global Health Threat Counc- — Council that is armed with the tools we need to monitor and identify emerging pandemics so that we can take immediate action.

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This is a huge development in the battle for freedom in Victoria, Australia.  It cannot be overstated.

The Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has declared war against their own leadership, John Setka (left, circled), for not fighting against the mandatory COVID vaccine.  As he was attempting to hunker down in his office headquarters, union boss John Setka physically came under attack from his own union membership over his political relationship with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

This is the U.S. equivalent of AFL-CIO members launching a violent uprising against former union President Richard Trumka; and then Trumka running to Joe Biden for help and protection from his own membership.

The CFMEU members are the heavy-hitting blue-collar construction and dirty fingernail workers, and the leadership of the CFMEU are the thug-like mobsters who run the union.

Just like the AFL-CIO or UAW in America, the union leadership in Australia is politically corrupt and disconnected from the members they serve. Earlier today (AU-time), the union members organized to confront the union leadership.

When CFMEU union boss John Setka tried to weasel his way out of the confrontation things turned violent. The members have had enough of the lockdowns, ridiculous COVID regulations and now the forced vaccinations. Setka shouted, “What do you want me to do, shut it down?” The members erupted in cheers. Yes, that is exactly what they want. [09:54 of video below]

The union members want their leadership to fight for them; to use the power of the union labor movement to shut down industry and bring the government to heel. The righteously angry members, turned freedom fighters, want to force Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to back-down from his totalitarian dictates, and stop the mandatory vaccines that create two classes of people.

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