A Macro-View: Labor Market Blues; When Will it End?
Even if the economy is starting to turn around as noted in many of my posts at ‘Macro View of the Markets’, we are facing a major threat of high unemployment rates overhanging economic growth in the long run. The article entitled Initial jobless claims rise 17,000 to 474,000 Total jobless claims, including extended benefits, top 10 million sums up this overhang:
Over the past several months, the claims data have flashed two somewhat contradictory messages: Fewer people are losing their jobs than were six months ago, but once a job is lost, it’s very hard to find another one.
This most definitely indicates a need for a WH Jobs Summit. Although not much usually happens at such summits it strikes me as a bad decision to exclude from invitation both the United States Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business where the event featured 133 guests. A couple of names should be familiar on the invite list including world famous economists like Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs and lastly but not least Paul Krugman. Well sure enough Dr. Krugman provided a glimpse of what he may have been thinking of when going to the summit at The Jobs Imperative.
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