Something is wrong with the economy. According to the Labor Department, businesses posted a record-high 10.9 million job openings in July. But despite this unprecedented number of open positions, the economy added only 235,000 net new jobs in August, nearly half a million fewer than economists had expected.
How can there be so many job openings yet so few people willing to take those jobs?
It’s not that employers aren’t raising wages; they are. Average hourly earnings rose at a 6.9% annual rate in August. These gains were concentrated where they are needed most, in the low-skill jobs companies are having the hardest time finding willing workers.
Part of the problem in filling vacancies might be that inflation is rising faster than pay, which means a decline in real wages. Thanks in large part to President Joe Biden’s spending spree, the economy is suffering from inflation rates not seen in …
Americans don’t need trillions in spending to get back to work
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