U.S. inflation exceeded expectations in October
Due to the soaring prices, in the coming "Thanksgiving" and "Christmas", the United States may usher in "the most expensive turkey and Christmas tree in history", and even basic daily necessities are in short supply.
Julian, the owner of a restaurant in Las Vegas, USA, is worrying about the upcoming Thanksgiving Day. It turned out that he had received hundreds of turkey orders, which should have been a happy thing, but this year the number of turkeys served in shops and restaurants was greatly reduced, which made Julian feel stressed.
Like the turkey on Thanksgiving Day, as Christmas is approaching, the Christmas tree in the United States is also in crisis. At Melt Forest Farm in Missouri, USA, tree owner Jennifer is praying that this year's Christmas tree orders can be reduced because there is not enough supply.
The situation at Melt Forest Farm is not unique. The American Christmas Tree Association recently stated that the shortage of Christmas trees this year is industry-wide. In addition, affected by drought and supply chain shortages, the price of Christmas trees will also rise, and the increase is expected to reach 25%.
More than the "double festival" stocking encounters difficulties, price increases and shortages have covered almost every field in the United States. According to recent data released by the US Department of Labor, the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.9% in October. In the 12 months ending in October 2021, the US annual inflation rate rose by 6.2%, reaching the highest level in 30 years. level.
However, not long ago, the White House Chief of Staff Klein reposted a message on social media, saying that the current price increases and shortages of supplies facing the United States are "high-level troubles." The American people do not buy into the term "advanced trouble".
Hundreds of drugs are out of stock, U.S. supply chain shortage may lead to public health crisis
Now, almost everything from cars and refrigerators to books and toys in the United States is in short supply. As the world's largest economy, why does the United States have such a serious lack of daily necessities?
Brian is a pharmacist at the University of Virginia Medical Center. He is deeply touched by the current "supply chain crisis". Tocilizumab is a key drug required for both new crown treatment and cancer treatment, because it cannot be restocked in time. , The University of Virginia Medical Center had to choose to leave this drug to chemotherapy patients, while the larger number of patients with new coronary pneumonia did not have the opportunity to use it.
Data show that there are currently 109 drugs in the United States listed as short supply, of which drugs for chemotherapy, heart disease and antibiotics are the most in short supply.
In addition to the shortage of medicines to treat illnesses and save people, as autumn and winter are hunting seasons for many Americans, there has been a shortage of ammunition in stores in many places including Wisconsin recently, and some stores have also posted "Ammunition Restriction" notices.
Wage increases hit a 20-year high, but there is a wave of strikes in the United States
The lack of human resources is also further intensifying the mismatch of supply and demand in the United States. However, despite the wage increase hitting a new high in nearly 20 years, there has been a wave of strikes across the United States.
Recently, employees of McDonald's in North Carolina, USA launched a strike due to dissatisfaction with salary levels, causing some stores to close. In fact, since the beginning of this year, the average salary of McDonald's employees in the United States has increased by 15%. However, strikes by the company have successively occurred in more than ten cities across the United States. At the same time, more and more new employees are coming to apply. Less, McDonald's fell into a labor shortage.
Not only McDonald's, starting from October this year, many industries involving the catering, manufacturing, and medical industries have launched strikes. The American mass media even referred to this strike wave as the "October Strike."
In this regard, some employers have chosen to compromise, especially in the recruitment of some important positions in the supply chain, the salary increase is also very alarming. JK Removal Service is a major employer in North America. Since the beginning of this year, the position of long-distance truck driver has been in a state of staff shortage. For this reason, the company raised the salary by 20% in one go, and raised the minimum annual salary for this position to 100,000. U.S. dollars, about 640,000 yuan.
In addition to McDonald's employees and truck drivers, in the United States, the income of courier brothers has also increased significantly. Someone calculated an account for them. Among them, the diligent courier brother had an annual salary of about 135,000 US dollars. According to data from the US Department of Labor, the salary increase in the third quarter of 2021 set a new high in the past 20 years. Especially for low-income groups such as restaurant, bar and hotel employees, their average salary increased by 8.1% year-on-year.
However, soaring salaries have failed to retain workers, and a wave of resignations is sweeping across the United States. Statistics show that as of the end of August this year, nearly 4.3 million employees in the United States had resigned, a record high since December 2000 in the country. Among them, transportation, trade, retail, manufacturing and other related commodity supply chain positions had the largest number of resignations. At present, there are still more than 10 million job vacancies in the United States, further increasing the pressure on the country's supply chain.
Zhang Jianping, deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese Academy of Commerce: With the implementation of unlimited quantitative easing policies in the United States, inflation in the United States is relatively serious. After receiving subsidies, many people go to consume and stop working. So far, demand has exploded, and the supply side of the United States has relied heavily on imports from overseas. This has led to a serious mismatch between supply and demand in a short period of time, and serious problems have appeared in the supply chain.
