In Honor of Labor Day

According to the 10th Annual Labor Day Report from the National Association of Manufacturers, "job creation has slowed (1.9 million jobs created in the 12 months
ending July 2007 compared to 2.3 million jobs created during the previous 12 months), but economic growth has been strong enough to continue to push down the unemployment rate modestly from 4.8 percent in July 2006 to 4.6 percent in July 2007. As a consequence, the labor market has further tightened from the cyclical peak of 6.3 percent reached four years ago. This has been good news for the American worker. Tight labor markets force firms to compete for a scarce supply of available workers, which tends to put upward pressure on wages."

On a related note, yesterday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their 2006 report, Productivity and Costs by Industry: Wholesale Trade, Retail Trade, and Food Services and Drinking Places, which indicates that labor productivity–defined as output per hour–increased in each of these industries.