The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ April employment report found healthy growth in the labor market in April. Employers added 165,000 net jobs, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 7.5 percent. While falling short of expectations for a recovery from a deep recession, this would be considered decent growth in normal economic times. However, the improvement in…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report for March had some silver linings, but overall the report was disappointing. Employers added a net of only 88,000 new jobs, and labor force participation dropped sharply. The labor force drop caused the unemployment rate to fall by 0.1 percentage point to 7.6 percent despite the low job gains. However, revisions to the…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’s (BLS) February employment report showed solid labor market growth. Employers added 236,000 net new jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent. However, the labor market is weaker than the headline numbers suggest. It remains unclear whether the labor market is improving. One factor that Congress should not…

In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for raising minimum wage to $9.00 an hour. He argued that “no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty.”[1] Most minimum-wage workers, however, are not poor. Congress should examine which workers—that would not lose their jobs—would benefit from a higher minimum wage. Data from the Bureau of Labor…

Unemployment increased to 7.9 percent in January. While the number of Americans looking for work remains above 12 million, the unemployment rate remains at its October level. The long-awaited labor market recovery remained as distant as ever in January. Factors are holding back employment growth that economic forecasters have not incorporated into their models. One such…

Union density in the American workplace fell to another new post–World War II low of 11.3 percent in 2012. Private-sector union membership fell to 6.6 percent—less than when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). U.S. labor laws do not meet the needs of modern American workers. The laws prevent union members from receiving individual…

The December employment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that 2012 ended with an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent and 155,000 new jobs. The labor market has not had an adequate recovery and has made little progress from 2011 to 2012. Many American workers will experience permanent lower lifetime earnings as a result of the poor economic recovery,…