Thumbing through the annual report of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is always an education. This year’s 430-page edition is no exception. Crammed with tables and charts, it brims with useful facts and insights.
●On page 62, we learn that the growth of state and local government spending on services (schools, police, parks) has been the slowest of any recovery since World War II. One reason: Payments into underfunded pensions are draining money from services.
●The CEA says on page 72 that labor markets could tighten in 2016 even if job creation is well below last year’s monthly average of 228,000. A mere 78,000 new jobs a month would absorb new workers and keep the unemployment rate at 5 percent. With 141,000 new jobs a month, unemployment would drop to 4.5 percent (January’s actual rate: 4.9 percent).
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