However, none of this highly desirable economic growth can happen unless there are people available to fill the newly created jobs. Accordingly, a healthy, well-functioning labour market is critical, particularly at this stage of the business cycle. There are many ways to measure labour market health. We start with the unemployment rate because it is intuitive and the most commonly reported indicator.
Eighty years ago, faced with a more dire set of economic circumstances than we are today, Franklin D. Roosevelt famously told Americans that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” But this is not the Great Depression.