However, U.S. factory workers, on average, are more productive than their counterparts abroad, and domestic manufacturers report that they are looking for more workers with these greater skills as they increase their use of automation and redesign their production processes. Current conditions in the labor market As I noted, the national unemployment rate has declined markedly during the economic recovery.
But it is my judgment that the lower level of the unemployment rate today probably does not fully capture the extent of slack remaining in the labor market-in other words, how far away we are from a full-employment economy.