BERKELEY – The latest data on
employment in the United States confirm that the American economy
continues to recover from the Great Recession of 2008-2009, despite the
slowdown engulfing the other G-20 nations. Indeed, the pace of
private-sector job growth has actually been much stronger during this
recovery than during the recovery from the 2001 recession, and is
comparable to the recovery from the 1990-1991 recession.
During the last 31 months, private-sector employment has increased by 5.2 million and the unemployment rate has now fallen below 8%
for the first time in nearly four years. But the unemployment rate is
still more than two percentage points above the long-run value that most
economists view as normal when the economy is operating near its
potential.
Moreover, the number of long-term unemployed (27 weeks or longer) is about 40% of the total – thelowest
share since 2009, but still far higher than in the previous recessions
since the Great Depression, and about double what it would be in a
normal labor market. So the US labor market, while healing, is still far
from where it should be.
