Whats the biggest misconception about U.S. unemployment today?
When the monthly numbers come out I think there’s wild overreaction. There are very small differences in what people expect and what the actual numbers say. The reality is that the job market is recovering. It has improved over the last couple months at a slower rate than it was recovering in the first quarter. But I think people have gone down the deep end, saying we could expect a double dip. My view is that economic recovery is coming. The jobs recovery is following behind it and we see that in the temporary employment numbers. Also, companies don’t hire aggressively until they have employees already on board working full-time. We need to see the average weekly hours worked go up because that would indicate full utilization of existing workers. Where are the jobs today? The volume of temporary jobs is coming first for people with manufacturing and supply chain-related skills. That’s normal because it’s related to the inventory cycle. Companies have worn down their inventory. They’ve
