Low Unemployment Has Been Good for the Working Poor. Are There Lessons To Be Learned For Leaner Times?

With rising inflation, downtowns that are yet to fully reopen and regional bank failures, it may seem that there is not a lot of good economic news to report right now. But according to Katherine S. Newman and Elisabeth S. Jacobs, the authors of a new book, “Moving the Needle,” there is a major economic success story in the tight labor markets of recent years which helped bring the truly disadvantaged out of poverty. Newman and Jacobs say that low unemployment has not only increased wages, it has also changed employers’ minds about hiring the formerly incarcerated, the value of a minimum wage, and the importance of flexible schedules. We’ll talk about how the policies applied during periods of low unemployment can make a difference when economic times get tough.