“Previous literature has found that both unemployment and inflation lower happiness” write David G. Blanchflower, David N.F. Bell, Alberto Montagnoli and Mirko Moro in The effects of macroeconomic shocks on well-being (Adapted chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow). The macroeconomist Arthur Okun characterised the negative effects of unemployment and inflation by the misery index – the sum of the … Continue reading
Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, a top Federal Reserve official, said on Tuesday that his main concern now was unemployment, not inflation. He said another option the Fed might consider to signal its aims to markets was a target for unemployment, although this would be difficult because monetary policy alone was not responsible for creating jobs. … Continue reading
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Janet Yellen backed a proposal to link the Fed’s zero interest-rate policy to progress toward meeting its goals for inflation and employment rather than to a calendar date. “The Committee might eliminate the calendar date entirely and replace it with guidance on the economic conditions that would need to prevail before … Continue reading
One of the main policies to reduce long-term unemployment is an active labor market policy. The OECD publishes each year data on Government investments in labor market programs like training and wage subsidies.
Gemany and the Scandinavian countries are champions of active labor market policies. This is well known. But, less known is the fact that the US are not. US investment in active labor market programs before the Great recession wasbelow the OECD average, nearly 4 times lower: 0.13% of GDP vs 0.48%.
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The accommodative monetary policies I have reviewed today, both traditional and nontraditional, have provided important support to the economic recovery while helping to maintain price stability… Notwithstanding these positive signs, the economic situation is obviously far from satisfactory… Further, the rate of improvement in the labor market has been painfully slow. I have noted on … Continue reading
J. Bradford DeLong At first, the long-term unemployed in the Great Depression searched eagerly and diligently for alternative sources of work. But, after six months or so passed without successful reemployment, they tended to become discouraged and distraught. After 12 months of continuous unemployment, the typical unemployed worker still searched for a job, but in … Continue reading
The U.S. labor market has been reeling since the onset of the Great Recession in December 2007. Public concern has largely focused on the unemployment rate, which rose to double digits and has stalled at more than 8 percent. This rate is unacceptably high, and macroeconomic policy efforts have been unsuccessful in bringing it down write Robert … Continue reading
Welcome to life in a suboptimal currency area. After all, countries that share a currency also share monetary policy. If they don’t share fiscal policy too — that is, there is no centralized treasury — they can get into trouble. Just ask Europe. But as Christian Odendahl at The Economist points out, this also means that … Continue reading