The Difference Between The Stock Market & The Economy

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One of my favorite shows NPR’s Marketplace Money has a host by the name of Kai Rysdal and he always says “The Stock Market is not the economy.” That statement is really true today as we see an uneven economy. In one news segment you could see billionaires going to space and also a headline for millions of people facing eviction. I want to look at how the economy is uneven and how people should pay attention to what is really going on.

Employers:

Employers may be seeing all time highs when it comes to their profits, but they can’t understand if their company is doing so well, why they can’t find people to fill positions. If you are finding it hard to hire people, look at the inflation part of the economy and not your profits. It costs your potential employee more to live these days so the old salary or wage you were offering is not going to attract people to come work for you. You will need to increase your offer.

Educators:

Whether you work with students in k-12 or in college please understand that each student and their situation is different. You may have a student whose parents are winning big in their investments and rental home income while another student in your class may have a parent that has been fighting eviction for an entire year. These children can’t be expected to learn in the same way because they are in two different mindsets because of the personal economy they are living in. So, as educators for the next year there will be some adjustments that will need to be made.

The Average American:

I think all of us could really benefit from looking deeper than the stock market and the jobs reports. To understand that in this country 608,000 people have died from COVID and in the world 4 million, so we all can be a little more patient to those who are working hard at a restaurant that is understaffed. We can follow the rules that flight attendants are giving us when we travel. We all can be a little more kinder after the year and a half we have had. This economy is complex and when you add the lives of real people into the equation it becomes even more difficult to navigate. We all must take the time to adapt to what is really going on in the real world, not just what the stock market is saying.

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