For a while, recently, it looked as though the U.S. economy could create something on the order of 250,000 jobs per month, which got economic analysts thinking and hoping that at long last, the United States had turned the employment corner and would soon reach full employment--or something resembling full employment, at any rate. Those …
Don’t Know Much about History (Paul Krugman Edition)
Look I understand that Paul Krugman is loath to give Ronald Reagan credit for anything good. But when he goes and makes things up about Reagan's economic record, someone should really call him on it. Preferably someone at the New York Times who is actually in charge of editing and fact-checking. Or doesn't the Times employ …
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Another Poor Jobs Report
Have I mentioned recently how truly tired I am of writing blog posts lamenting the bad employment situation?A surprising drop in hiring and in the number of people seeking work in August sent a reminder that the U.S. economic recovery is still prone to temporary slowdowns.Employers added just 142,000 jobs last month, well below the …
In Praise of Janet Yellen
Her statement today, in which she mentioned that the Federal Reserve would watch to see how the employment market was doing before raising interest rates, is welcome news for just about anyone who is still concerned that the economic recovery is not on firm footing, and who believes that the job market still has a …
Potentially Good Economic News
I am as happy as anyone to see that the economy grew by 4%, though as the New York Times story indicates, there is a question as to whether this means that the economy is picking up steam for significant long term growth, or whether it is merely making up for contractions earlier in the …
Just a Reminder: The Labor Market Is Still Unhealthy
To wit: After adding 217,000 net new jobs last month, the U.S. economy has recovered all the positions lost during the Great Recession. But economists warned that the news Friday from the Labor Department was no real reason to celebrate. “Things are improving, but it’s happening agonizingly slowly,” said Heidi Shierholz, a labor market economist …
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Just What We Needed: More Bad Employment News
Justifying my decision to look askance at the latest jobs report, we have this story, which informs us that "total employment has declined by half a million," and that the economy is not keeping up with population growth. Again, let me state that the Federal Reserve has to continue bond purchases and any other forms …
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Mixed News on the Employment Front
Obviously, I am pleased by the fact that we have 288,000 new jobs, and an unemployment rate that is down to 6.3%. But there remain worrisome elements in the latest employment report: . . . the good news was tempered by a drop of 806,000 in the number of Americans in the labor force, pushing …
The Employment Market Continues to Be Weak
At this rate, it will take us forever to achieve full employment: The American economy added 113,000 jobs in January, a disappointing showing that is likely to spur fears that the labor market is poised for yet another slowdown. Before the report from the Labor Department on Friday morning, economists had been looking for the …
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Rethinking Employment Policy
Michael Strain has drawn up an employment policy agenda for conservatives (and for right-of-center libertarians too, for that matter), that is must-reading. It serves as a valuable contribution to the debate over employment policy and hopefully will shake up that debate significantly and lead to pathbreaking reforms and legislation that might help get more people back …
