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These days, economists find themselves in a fog with respect to the labor market.
First, there’s the fact that the
monthly jobs report for September was released a month late and the October report was canceled entirely. But, on top of that, the data that do exist are giving mixed signals. The number of jobs being added to the economy has slowed to a crawl. But, the unemployment rate has remained low by historical standards. Job openings and worker quits — which respectively measure how easy it is to get a job and how comfortable people feel leaving one — are falling quickly (bad) but also in line with historical averages (good). What’s going on?
