Job growth has been less than stellar, but it’s still positive.
Ummm…. how much job growth can you have with a 5% unemployment rate? As the number of unemployed decreases the competition to hire those remaining unemployed increases which results in rising wages which kills the economic incentive to hire the workers. If you read this article on Full employment, you’ll find:
“Some Economists estimate a “range” of possible unemployment rates. For example, in 1999, in the United States, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) gives an estimate of the “full-employment unemployment rate” of 4 to 6.4%. This is the estimated “structural” unemployment rate, (the unemployment when there is full employment), plus & minus, the standard error of the estimate. (Estimates for other countries are also available from the OECD.)”
which suggests that we don’t really have a bunch of spare labor. However, as labor is fungible any business that wants more employees can get them — for a price.
