Is the problem government cash or have we entered a new paradigm?
by Michael D. Farren
Reason.com
The September jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that August’s disappointing job growth was not a fluke. In an era of rushed reporting, motivated by 24-hour news cycles and politically weaponized talking points, we should always treat any single data point with a large grain of salt. Two in a row, however, suggests that a trend might be forming, warranting more careful attention.
For reasons we don’t understand well, the labor market might be pivoting toward a period of slower growth, driven by a scarcity of available workers.
The most important problem facing the labor market is the return of workers to the workforce—or the lack thereof. The most recent BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed businesses seeking to fill a record 10.9 million jobs in July. That astonishing number is 44 percent higher than the pre-pandemic record. It also stands against 8.7 million workers who were counted as officially unemployed in July, which decreased to less than 7.7 million by September.