Flexibility is most readily achieved by fostering an environment of maximum competition. A key element in creating this environment is flexible labor markets. Many working people equate labor market flexibility with job insecurity. Despite that perception, flexible labor policies appear to promote job creation. An increased capacity of management to discharge workers without excessive cost, for example, apparently increases companies' willingness to hire without fear of unremediable mistakes. The net effect, to the surprise of most, has been what appears to be a decline in the structural unemployment rate in the United States over the past quarter century.  Protectionism in all its guises, both domestic and international, does not contribute to the welfare of workers. At best, it is a short-term fix for a few workers at a cost of lower standards of living for a nation as a whole. Increased education and training for those displaced by creative destruction is the answer, not a stifling of competition.

As economic growth returned [in the latest recovery], firms found that they could meet the increased demand for goods and services without hiring additional workers.  This resulted in strong gains to productivity, which is an important source of long-term growth for the economy, but it meant that employment gains were weaker than in prior recoveries.

Market sentiment has coalesced around the view that news about employment growth is a significant influence on the path of the intended funds rate in the forseeable future...My emphasis on market reaction to employment surprises does not mean that the market ignores inflation.  What has happened in recent years is that core inflation--inflation excluding effects of food and energy--simply has not generated significant surprises.

The national unemployment rate has gradually dropped to 4.9 percent, which is near conventional estimates of the natural rate consistent with "full employment."

With the kind of growth I am projecting — moderately above the economy's long-run potential — we will continue to add new jobs at a healthy pace, without creating undue inflationary pressures. This, in turn, positions us to settle into a prolonged period of sustained expansion.

Nonfarm payrolls have been growing for some time now...hiring is up and recruiters have returned to campus. In fact, over the past 12 months, non-farm payroll gains have averaged 185,000 per month, somewhat above the figure that many economists believe is necessary to keep pace with growth in the labor force. As a result, the unemployment rate has slowly drifted down, and now stands at 5 percent, which is relatively low by historical standards.

I expect employment growth to continue in the range of 150,000 to 200,000 jobs per month this year, and obviously, this would be a welcome pattern in an economy that had struggled to add jobs in this cycle.

With the unemployment rate at 5 percent, we must also begin to ask how much slack remains in the labor market...By at least one measure, there may not be much...Once a year, we ask the [Survey of Professional Forecasters] participants for their estimate of the economy's “natural rate” of unemployment...In our most recent survey, released this month, the median of the estimates of the natural rate of unemployment was 5 percent. This suggests to me that we may begin seeing some tightness in the labor markets soon, and some upward pressure on wages and prices.

[Globalization] undoubtedly enhances standards of living worldwide.  And indeed, those economies that engage in international freight have invariably been boosted...But that process is very disruptive, and indeed, it's associated with a very large turnover of the labor force.

The very most recent data do suggest that there is an increasing return of self-employed to the corporate sector more generally...One of the reasons I suspect it's probably happening is that medical costs being provided by...corporate organizations are attractive to a number who are not doing as well self-employed as they would like.

We are getting a bivariate income distribution...For a democratic society, this is not healthful, to say the least...I believe this is an education problem that requires us to get the balance of skills coming out of our schools to match the skills that our physical facilities require.

A policy to dismantle the global trading system in a misguided effort to protect jobs from competition would redound to the eventual detriment of all U.S. job seekers, as well as of millions of American consumers.  Policy should aim to bolster the well-being of job losers through retraining and unemployment insurance, not to stave off job loss through counterproductive efforts to impede the process of income-enhancing international trade and globalization.

Some observers mistakenly believe that a marked increase in the exchange value of the renminbi relative to the US dollar would significantly increase manufacturing activity and jobs in the United States.  I am aware of no credible evidence that supports such a conclusion.

The understanding that sustainable communities are as dependent on the creation of good jobs as they are on the availability of decent, affordable housing is, I believe, a relatively new construct in our political discourse.

I think it is time to stop focusing on short-run job losses, as difficult as they are. We must start focusing more on the long-run adaptability of our businesses and our capacity to grow new ones. The jobs will follow...We need to shift the focus from preserving the past to creating the future.