Journal Article

How Tight Is the U.S. Labor Market?


Abstract: The U.S. unemployment rate fell to a very low level at the end of 2016, raising the question of whether the labor market has become too tight. After applying a new method to adjust for demographic changes in the labor force, the current unemployment rate is still 0.3 to 0.4 percentage point higher than at past labor market peaks. This indicates that the labor market may not be quite as tight as the headline unemployment rate suggests.

Access Documents

File(s): File format is application/pdf http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/files/el2017-07.pdf
Description: Full text

Authors

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Part of Series: FRBSF Economic Letter

Publication Date: 2017

Order Number: 07