Why American unemployment needs to rise
Lessons from the tightest corner of the country’s ultra-tight labour market
An unemployment problem, as normally understood, occurs when lots of people cannot find work. Northfield, a city in Minnesota with a population of 20,000, exemplifies the troubles that arise at the opposite end of the spectrum: when unemployment is so low that lots of businesses and organisations cannot find workers. Along with Utah, Minnesota has the lowest unemployment rate of any state in America at 2.1%. And in Minnesota, Northfield has just about the lowest unemployment rate of any city, a mere 1.2%.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Hot like Minnesota”
Finance & economics
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- How crypto goes to zero
- Why American unemployment needs to rise
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From the November 26th 2022 edition
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