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> America is at near full employment Pretty sure that is the U3 rate which only counts people as unemployed if they are actively looking for a job. The U6 is b

> America is at near full employment Pretty sure that is the U3 rate which only counts people as unemployed if they are actively looking for a job. The U6 is better and rarely falls below 5%: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/U6RATE https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/U6RATE

b112 7mo ago
Same issue in my country with employment rates. Yes, some of those have been looking for work for so long that they slide from looking to "not looking" automatically. However at the same time, some of those people actually don't want to work. And if they don't want to work, why would that impinge upon full employment, because what is the plan? Force people to work who are retired, or don't want to? Work or go to jail? "Full employment" is always presumed to be "people wanting to work can find it".
- AlexCoventry 7mo ago
  Giving up looking is not necessarily the same as not wanting a job.
  - b112 7mo ago
    Yes, that's why I specifically mentioned it. If the best data you have is conjoined, then you must either figure it out, or ignore it. Do you know what percentage, exactly, are retired vs "giving uo"? No? Then when someone says full employment, they're right unless you have specific and precise data to counter that. We could also discuss people too sick to work. Or on maternity leave. Or wealth vs desire to work. Or 100 other factors.
    - xp84 7mo ago
      > Then when someone says full employment, they're right unless That's odd. The burden of proof is not exclusively on one side.
      - b112 7mo ago
        The burden of proof is predicated upon a well established economic terms. You want to refute those century+ old definitions? Alter them? Then yes, you have to start the dance. And work at it. And convince the entire planet to change.
will4274 7mo ago
The U6 is also historically low though. America is as fully employed as just about anytime in the past 50 years. Using a different metric may have different raw numbers, but the conclusion is the same.
- tw04 7mo ago
  >America is as fully employed as just about anytime in the past 50 years. And what percentage of those workers are Walmart or Amazon warehouse employees who don't have healthcare coverage and don't make enough money to actually cover their monthly bills without being on welfare/public assistance? Because my linkedin extended network says there's an awful lot of highly skilled people unable to find jobs in their respective fields.
  - janalsncm 7mo ago
    U6 is supposed to take under employment into account, so their answer would be less than 8%. Hard to know how accurate it is though.
mcmcmc 7mo ago
I don’t think you can take any numbers coming from this administration seriously, regardless of the institution.
pj_mukh 7mo ago
FWIW, I'm not saying we are at full employment for all possible specializations and geography's, clearly some are out and others are in and we have some of the most immobile labor we've seen in a while [1]. The problem, as with many things, is housing. People simply can't (and aren't) moving to where the jobs are. [1]: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5660752/why-americans-dont-want-to-move-for-jobs-anymore-encore https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5660752/why-americans-d...

b112 7mo ago

Same issue in my country with employment rates. Yes, some of those have been looking for work for so long that they slide from looking to "not looking" automatically. However at the same time, some of those people actually don't want to work. And if they don't want to work, why would that impinge upon full employment, because what is the plan? Force people to work who are retired, or don't want to? Work or go to jail? "Full employment" is always presumed to be "people wanting to work can find it".

AlexCoventry 7mo ago
Giving up looking is not necessarily the same as not wanting a job.
- b112 7mo ago
  Yes, that's why I specifically mentioned it. If the best data you have is conjoined, then you must either figure it out, or ignore it. Do you know what percentage, exactly, are retired vs "giving uo"? No? Then when someone says full employment, they're right unless you have specific and precise data to counter that. We could also discuss people too sick to work. Or on maternity leave. Or wealth vs desire to work. Or 100 other factors.
  - xp84 7mo ago
    > Then when someone says full employment, they're right unless That's odd. The burden of proof is not exclusively on one side.
    - b112 7mo ago
      The burden of proof is predicated upon a well established economic terms. You want to refute those century+ old definitions? Alter them? Then yes, you have to start the dance. And work at it. And convince the entire planet to change.

will4274 7mo ago

The U6 is also historically low though. America is as fully employed as just about anytime in the past 50 years. Using a different metric may have different raw numbers, but the conclusion is the same.

tw04 7mo ago
>America is as fully employed as just about anytime in the past 50 years. And what percentage of those workers are Walmart or Amazon warehouse employees who don't have healthcare coverage and don't make enough money to actually cover their monthly bills without being on welfare/public assistance? Because my linkedin extended network says there's an awful lot of highly skilled people unable to find jobs in their respective fields.
- janalsncm 7mo ago
  U6 is supposed to take under employment into account, so their answer would be less than 8%. Hard to know how accurate it is though.

mcmcmc 7mo ago

I don’t think you can take any numbers coming from this administration seriously, regardless of the institution.

pj_mukh 7mo ago

FWIW, I'm not saying we are at full employment for all possible specializations and geography's, clearly some are out and others are in and we have some of the most immobile labor we've seen in a while [1]. The problem, as with many things, is housing. People simply can't (and aren't) moving to where the jobs are. [1]: https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5660752/why-americans-dont-want-to-move-for-jobs-anymore-encore https://www.npr.org/2025/12/31/nx-s1-5660752/why-americans-d...