The labor market is the best in 50 years
New claims for unemployment benefits are trending at their lowest levels since 1968, a sign of how few layoffs are happening in the tightest labor market in half a century.
Job security today, by some measures, is even better than it was in the economic halcyon days of the late 1960s.
Behind today’s extremely tight labor market is a transformed U.S. economy, not least because its labor force is much bigger, including more women and more jobs in the service sector. The total number of people either working or looking for work is now 164 million, more than twice what it was in 1968.Average weekly claims by month per one thousand members of the labor force.
That means the layoffs-per-worker rate is significantly lower today than even the 1960s. In March, there were about 1.1 jobless claims per 1,000 people in the labor force—roughly half the 2.3 jobless claims per 1,000 recorded in 1968, according to an analysis of Labor Department data.
“Right now, Americans are experiencing the highest level of job security on record by many measures,” said Aaron Sojourner, an economist at the University of Minnesota.
Oh no! That’s terrible!
Yes, inflation is high. It is slightly outpacing wage growth. And inflation is particularly hard on people on fixed incomes. But this story is also salient and it would be nice if it was flogged by the media with the same glee as the inflation numbers.