[boredumb]

Government forcing people out of their jobs and then allowing them to come back into the work force is not job growth in the sense of anything meaningful. So no it probably hasn't been seen before, but it's irrelevant, if I took your 10 dollars today and gave you back 8 dollars next week, your bank account isn't growing unless you only look at this weeks balance and choose to ignore the extremely recent past.

[Workaccount2]

That doesn't make sense since employment is near capacity right now and the worker shortage is still very real. Mind you this is now long after all the covid benefits have dried up.

[peanuty1]

The worker shortage is at least partly bc of people leaving the workforce, not just bc of creation of new jobs (compared to pre-Covid 2020).

[loeg]

Employment is higher than it was before Covid and unemployment is down at around the same level. To put it in terms of your metaphor, the bank has given you back $10.10 or so for your $10.

[s1artibartfast]

Except it isn't actually higher.

https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/civilian-lab...

[loeg]

You can quibble with the exact threshold, but it certainly isn’t 80% of pre-Covid employment:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/269959/employment-in-the...

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS

[s1artibartfast]

Certainly not 80%, but by all metrics, both mine and yours, it is still below what it was before.

[loeg]

Actually, 158 is greater than 157.

[s1artibartfast]

158 is a projection into the future, not a current number.

It is also not adjusted for population growth, the way labor participation is.

[_ea1k]

Those charts don't seem to be lower now than before.

[rabuse]

Unemployment doesn't account for people not actively seeking work, which is on the rise.

[loeg]

"People not actively seeking work" includes retirees -- which may be partially explained by demographic trends (aging boomers).

[jaywalk]

But when you give back the $8, you just need to tell them that "bank account growth" only matters week to week. Boom, they're now $8 richer thanks to you!