Last week, the Congressional Budget Office projected record-breaking growth in 2021, but it is premature to celebrate this rosy macroeconomic projection because the rest of their report contained the alarming prediction that the U.S. labor market will not fully recover until 2024. Also last week, the Labor Department’s January jobs report revealed anemic job growth of less than 50,000 and nearly 800,000 Americans filed new claims for unemployment insurance.
Avoiding another jobless, stagnant recovery that leaves millions of Americans unemployed must be a top priority for policymakers at every level of government.