In this March. 6, 2019, photo Valarie Regas poses for a photo at Ponce City Market in Atlanta. Child care costs delayed Regas' return to the job market after she gave birth to her second child in 2012. Regas wanted to go back, but most of the jobs she found didn’t pay enough to cover child care. So, she remained mostly out of the job market for five more years. After completing a coding boot camp, Regas was hired last year by a division of the European aerospace giant Airbus.
For five years after the Great Recession ended in 2009, many Americans gave up on their job hunts. Some suffered from disabilities. Others enrolled in school or stayed home to raise children. Still others were stymied by criminal pasts or failed drug tests. Some just felt discouraged by their job prospects. Because they weren’t actively seeking work, they weren’t even counted as unemployed.
On Friday, the government will report on job growth during February, and analysts are forecasting a solid if unspectacular gain of 183,000. That would fall below last year’s monthly average of 220,000 but would still be enough to lower the unemployment rate, now 4 percent, over time. Other factors that have held some people back from seeking work have included the high cost of child care and a lack of paid leave. Research suggests that such costs have held back the workforce participation rate of prime-age U.S. women, a rate that trails those in most other industrialized countries.
The rebound has confounded many experts’ projections. The Federal Reserve has consistently underestimated the likelihood of more people finding jobs. In 2013, its policymakers estimated that “full employment” — the lowest point to which unemployment was thought capable of reaching without sparking higher inflation — would arrive when the unemployment rate was between 5.2 percent and 5.8 percent.
Average pay is still growing more slowly than it did the last time unemployment was this low. Adam Ozimek, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, says this suggests that there is still room for companies to raise pay and perhaps entice even more people into the job market.
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From what I am hearing, people are working more than one job. Stability and job security not there. Longevity are one company is becoming almost non existent.
no-- people who voted for Trump expected it
People really don't want to give credit to the Trump administration for this good economy lol
It’s almost like trump is good for the economy
Dude, everyone with a brain knew the tax cuts would generate this. They are coming off their sofas. We've made it too easy to stay home and get a govt. check, except now, the jobs pay more.
MAGA...winning
Only defying the dopes expectations.
Defying expectations? Morons.
😀😃😄😁😆😅😂🤣
I am sure it pains you to report positive news that isn’t liberal agenda material
Hey Associated Press... I think you meant to say: Defying The AP's expectations, a hot U.S. job market is pulling in workers from the sidelines.
Style Guide variation of 'Unexpectedly!'
Errata: 'Defying Leftist hack, anti capitalism expectations'
Defying expectations? What a load of crap propaganda...
Thank you realDonaldTrump
Whose expectations? Paul Krugmans?
Defying expectations? Bias much?
Leave it to AP to insert their fakenews propaganda into a positive story!
The expectations were from the left and the media, not from economic common sense
Defying expectations 😂😂👍😂😢
peterjhasson That's why the Chamber of Commerce is pressuring Trump and idiot Ivanka to continue the flood of illegals, suppressing wages.
Thanks realDonaldTrump !
Not when you have 1400 jobs lost from the Ohio GM plant
They all have new careers from Hussein. Welfare!!
MAGA
Jobs requirements for Grandmas on Medicaid. $10/hr jobs galore across the south. Yippeee so much winnning. taxtherich soaktherich abolishbillionaires berntheswamp bernie2020
A hot job market will give Trump another term.
Still some 40% of Working age adults choose not to work, but receive welfare instead
Whose expectations is it defying? Not mine.