This is why wages are rising.
Also, I would argue that this tight labor market is what we want. It's forcing corporations to train unskilled people for job openings. It's forcing corporations to offer better wages and benefits to attract workers who do have some skills.
One reason corporations keep finding enough workers is that the better wages, benefits, and training programs keep pulling people in who weren't easy to count. These would be folks working in the gig economy, or living off their parents, or making do with welfare type benefits, just to name a few examples. Pulling people off the sidelines has been the big surprise for over a year now. If we had much of a genuine labor shortage, wages would be rising higher and with more rapid increases. I'm not saying a problematic labor shortage won't happen. We're just not quite there yet.
Also, if memory serves, legal immigration has increased and is running about 1.1 million people a year.
Vox is too partisan to pay much attention to, imo. Better to listen to certain of the pundits on CNBC or FBC. Even though they are members of either of our political parties, they are committed to delivering non-partisan data.
At any rate, it would be wonderful if both parties could appreciate the need to try and balance supply and demand when it comes to labor. Excess labor slowed down the recovery under Obama and it was an important factor in lengthening the Great Depression. |
