Moving the Needle

What Tight Labor Markets Do For The Poor. Another timely book and discussion, as unemployment remains near historic lows, wages and benefits rise, and the traditionally disenfranchised enter the labor force. Specifically, the book addresses structural change that occur below an already low unemployment rate (think Peter Berezin’s kinked Phillips curve), and only at those levels of labor participation. What is Fed Chairman Powell focused on as the tightening cycle continues? Hasn’t the labor market been subjected to just another supply shock that requires a scalpel instead of a hammer? “Moving the Needle examines how very low unemployment boosts wages at the bottom, improves benefits, lengthens job ladders, and pulls the unemployed into a booming job market. Drawing on over seventy years of quantitative data, as well as interviews with employers, jobseekers, and longtime residents of poor neighborhoods, Katherine S. Newman and Elisabeth S. Jacobs investigate the most durable positive consequences of tight labor markets.” Buy the book here!