Is America Really Near Full Employment?

Employment expert weighs in on the truth behind latest jobs numbers

JobsThe latest jobs report has many people talking about “full employment” and the fact that America is allegedly near this state. However, what does full employment really mean, and is our nation truly almost to this place?

Rob Wilson, President of Employco USA and employment trends expert says, “The fact is that we are not at full employment yet.  We’ll know if we are approaching full employment when inflation starts to really pick up, which I expect to see within the next 6-9 months.  At that time, I believe the Fed will answer with more dramatic rate increases and we’ll virtually reach full employment.”

Wilson says that experts who are calling this ‘full employment’ are speaking too soon due to our rocky economic history.

“Normally, the general rule-of-thumb full employment indicator of around 4.5% can’t be relied upon right now.  We’re still in uncharted waters coming out of the freakish recession and the new tariffs, which means the economic and employment industries are struggling with accurate predictions,” says Wilson.

However, Wilson says that the jobs’ report is very good news, and right on track with what employers in this nation say they are experiencing.

“In talking to our clients, even though we’re not quite at the full employment level yet, employers are still having a difficult time finding good quality candidates for their open positions.  We haven’t seen significant wage growth that typically accompanies low unemployment rates, but I think that’s next on the horizon,” says Wilson. “We need to be careful to keep rapid wage growth under control, otherwise, the U.S. might face a brand-new set of problems that will be very tough to overcome.”

For more on this topic, please contact Rob Wilson at rwilson@thewilsoncompanies.com.