Source: EconLog
by Tyler Watts
“In my previous post, I took on the common claim that America is losing manufacturing jobs. Not only are jobs growing, but job growth has outpaced population growth — i.e. the increase in the number of people available to fill those jobs — and this has been the case for most of the last four decades. Is the fact that more people are working good news for the economy? As is often the case in economics, it depends. If real wages are rising and people want to work more in order to improve their standard of living, then sure, let’s celebrate the growth in productivity, output, and earnings. If wages are stagnant and some people would rather pursue non-labor vocations, but feel the need to earn a paycheck in order to keep up with the cost of living, then job growth would be at best a mixed bag.” (05/12/25)