A reminder that there is still a lot of slack - people likely to work if job prospects improve - is illustrated by the following chart:
Jobs are being created in greater numbers. But the population is growing, so we need more jobs just to maintain the same employment rate: running to stand still. This is why statements heard on the lunchtime news that "the number of jobs in the economy are at their highest ever" are, quite frankly, ludicrous. Update: while for the UK this may be formally correct, it does not tell us very much about the state of the labour market, because it is bigger due to an increase in supply (population).
Comments