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> As America gets closer to full employment, workers are suddenly finding themself with the most power they’ve had in decades. This... does not comport with th
by cwyers 7y ago
> As America gets closer to full employment, workers are suddenly finding themself with the most power they’ve had in decades.
This... does not comport with the available evidence. Workers in the US right now do not have a lot of power relative to the height of US unions. And saying the US is near "full employment" is a parlor trick of how you define who is and who isn't in the labor force, which is why we can have stagnant wages while being near "full employment" for some time now.
- bumby 7y agoThere was just a Planet Money podcast episode (#917 'Quit Threat') that gives some evidence of the opposite. Namely, that the status of near-full employment is giving unions more power, to the point of renegotiating two-tier contracts before the contract ends. It's not absolute across all unions but does seem to indicate more employee power as unemployment numbers decrease, even after acknowledging your point that there isn't an exact definition for "full employment"