Sunday, February 01, 2015

Democrats won't like why the job market is so hot

The Economist reports:
America's labour market boomed in 2014. By December there were 3m more people in work than a year earlier. Unemployment was 1.1 percentage points lower. The ratio of jobseekers to openings fell from a peak of seven to one in 2009 to two to one in November 2014. What was behind this? The answer in a new study will not please Democrats.

The job market is hot largely because of a cold-hearted Republican reform, it concludes. Before the financial crisis, jobless workers in most states qualified only for 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. In June 2008 that was extended, thanks to a new federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) programme. By the end of 2013 the average unemployed American could expect benefits to last 53 weeks; in three states they could get 73 weeks' worth.


The supply and demand for working.