Jobs Friday And The Crock Called Full-Employment

Where it counts, the March jobs report was a dud. Today’s economy and labor market operates on worker hours deployed, not headcounts of job holders. After all, the latter ranges from 10 hours per week gigs flipping burgers at the minimum wage to 60 hours per week on the factory floor at up to $40 per hour or more.

So when it comes to hours worked, March was a big zero, nichts, nada. The index of aggregate hours of all private sector employees came in at  111.8—the exact same figure posted in February.