Labor Official: Don’t Worry About Likely Looming Spike in Jobless Rate
Related to the warnings from some economists that the official unemployment rate will likely jump again this year, a Labor Department official today conveyed
Jul 31, 2020131.2K Shares2.2M Views
Related to the warningsfrom some economists that the official unemployment rate will likely jump again this year, a Labor Department official today conveyed this message to lawmakers: Don’t worry about it.
Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee, Keith Hall, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, told the panel that, yes, historically, as labor markets improve, the resulting increase in the labor pool has caused the jobless rate “to bump up temporarily” — a trend that will likely happen this year as well. “We’ve got a particularly high potential for that because so many people are unemployed and we’ve lost so many people out of the labor force,” he said.
But, he added, that spike, because it’s caused by the economy gaining strength, is ultimately misleading.
“If we start to see real improvement,” he said, “we shouldn’t get too concerned if the unemployment rate hits a bit of a speed bump and goes up for a couple of months.”
Unless, from Congress’s perspective, those couple of months arrive around November.
Paolo Reyna
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Paolo Reyna is a writer and storyteller with a wide range of interests. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies.
Paolo enjoys writing about celebrity culture, gaming, visual arts, and events. He has a keen eye for trends in popular culture and an enthusiasm for exploring new ideas. Paolo's writing aims to inform and entertain while providing fresh perspectives on the topics that interest him most.
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