When there is a labor shortage, wages are going to rise. In a free market, that is what is supposed to happen.
In the United States, the apparent labor shortage is demonstrably attributable at least in large part to the lockdowns pushing workers to the sidelines and out of the labor force. Many have still not returned, and the rate of gro…
When there is a labor shortage, wages are going to rise. In a free market, that is what is supposed to happen.
In the United States, the apparent labor shortage is demonstrably attributable at least in large part to the lockdowns pushing workers to the sidelines and out of the labor force. Many have still not returned, and the rate of growth in the cohort of people not in the labor force has outpaced the growth of both the civilian noninstitutional population as well as the labor force itself.
There is no structural reason why people are not returning to the labor force. Most pandemic restrictions in most parts of the country have been eliminated. The barriers that did exist in most regards no longer exist. Yet people are not returning to the labor force.
The result is a smaller labor pool than otherwise would be the case, and thus upward pressure on wages.
It's an arbitrary and fundamentally manufactured shortage, but it is still a shortage, it still pushes up wages, and that shortage is not at all due to excess money sloshing through the system.
When there is a labor shortage, wages are going to rise. In a free market, that is what is supposed to happen.
In the United States, the apparent labor shortage is demonstrably attributable at least in large part to the lockdowns pushing workers to the sidelines and out of the labor force. Many have still not returned, and the rate of growth in the cohort of people not in the labor force has outpaced the growth of both the civilian noninstitutional population as well as the labor force itself.
There is no structural reason why people are not returning to the labor force. Most pandemic restrictions in most parts of the country have been eliminated. The barriers that did exist in most regards no longer exist. Yet people are not returning to the labor force.
The result is a smaller labor pool than otherwise would be the case, and thus upward pressure on wages.
It's an arbitrary and fundamentally manufactured shortage, but it is still a shortage, it still pushes up wages, and that shortage is not at all due to excess money sloshing through the system.