Michael Perelman wrote:
>Someone recently posted an article from the Wall Street Journal, I believe, to
>the effect that if unemployment has declined so little over such a long
>expansion, it would be sure to skyrocket with an economic slowdown.
I think the argument was about productivity, not unemployment. But
still - what are you talking about? The U.S. unemployment rate is the
lowest since January 1970, and the employment/pop ratio just a bit
off being the highest in history. Here are the two figures, for the
most recent month and at the employment trough (which came after the
bizcycle trough):
U EPR
6/92 7.7% 61.4%
8/00 4.1% 64.3%
The Conference Board's measures of "jobs plentiful/jobs hard to find"
are close to being their tightest ever. The overall poverty rate has
taken a sharp drop, and the black poverty rate is the lowest ever.
Yeah, I can make a list of all the things that are wrong - from
incarceration madness to an obscene wealth distribution - but this is
just a bit too gloomy even for me.
Doug
