Wage Growth, Job Growth And The Ongoing Unemployment Puzzle

With guest host Jane Clayson.

Job openings at a record high, but many unemployed are still stranded on the sidelines. We’ll take a big look at the American job market, American wages and more.

It has been a long road back for the American job market. And although there are some bright spots – job openings are at a record high – there are plenty of workers eager for better opportunities, or even any opportunity. We’ll dig into the numbers, to understand what employers, and job seekers, are seeing. What it means to cobble together part-time gigs. Where the best opportunities are. And we’ll also look at new pushes across the country for a higher minimum wage. This hour, On Point, a big look at the labor market.
-- Jane Clayson

Heather Boushey, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Executive director and chief economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. (@HBoushey)

Alicia Sasser Modestino, professor of economics and public policy at Northeastern University. (@SasserModestino)

Harry Holzer, senior fellow in economics at the Brookings Institution. Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Former chief economist for the US Department of Labor.

USA Today: Job openings hit record high in July — "Job openings surged to a record high in July even as hiring fell, signaling a tighter labor market that's expected to soon push up wage growth. Employers advertised 5.8 million jobs, up from 5.3 million in June and the highest on records dating to 2000, the Labor Department said Wednesday. The previous high was 5.4 million in May."

Bloomberg Business: Job Openings in U.S. Surge to Record While Hiring Cools — "The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, adds context to monthly payrolls figures by measuring dynamics such as resignations, help-wanted ads and the pace of hiring. Although it lags the Labor Department’s other jobs data by a month, Fed Chair Janet Yellen has said she follows the report as a gauge of labor-market tightness and worker confidence."

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Job Openings And Labor Turnover, July 2015 — "The number of job openings again rose to a series high of 5.8 million on the last business day of July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The number of hires and separations edged down to 5.0 million and 4.7 million, respectively. Within separations, the quits rate was 1.9 percent for the fourth month in a row, and the layoffs and discharges rate declined to 1.1 percent. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the nonfarm sector by industry and by four geographic regions."