Is The U.S. Labor Market Tightening?
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC), the December 2024 U.S. jobs report revealed a labor market that is much tighter than it was eight years ago when President Donald Trump first took office the first time. (Still, depending on what data point is examined, the market is not quite as tight as it was just before the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Specifically, eight years ago, there far were more people looking for work than there were open jobs. Today, there is less than one worker for every job opening in the economy. Why do these numbers matter? As the USCC argued, the U.S. economy’s capacity to re-shore industries, expand domestic manufacturing and industrial metals production, increase home construction, and expand other activities that would create more demand for industrial metals, will be limited if there is a persistent lack of available workers.
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