American employers extended an impressive run of hiring in May, even as policymakers took steps to cool the economy in an effort to ease high inflation.
The Labor Department reported Friday that employers added 390,000 jobs, the 17th straight monthly gain. The unemployment rate was 3.6 percent for the third straight month, a touch away from a half-century low.
...all but 800,000 of the 22 million jobs that were lost [from the COVID lockdowns] have been recovered...the Fed has shifted its emphasis from maximum employment to its other mandate: [controlling inflation]. The challenge is to apply...a steady series of interest-rate increases, without inflicting a recession.
Inflation and unemployment are at either end of a seesaw: as you bring one side down the other goes up. It is extremely difficult to get the balance right and we haven't gotten it right many times if at all. The Bidens have to get inflation down, unemployment is near a fifty-year low; if that means unemployment rises above 4 or even 4.5% percent, they have to do it. Inflation is effectively cutting the take-home pay of 96.4% of Americans with a job.