Colin Wilhelm of the Washington Examiner highlights an interesting projection from top Trump administration economic adviser Kevin Hassett.
Top Trump administration economist Kevin Hassett believes that the booming economy will draw millions more people back to work, defying projections for falling workforce participation, with an additional nudge from work requirements for welfare.
“It’s going to be very easy for people to convince themselves to re-enter the labor force,” Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, told the Washington Examiner. “The success of others is drawing more people in,” as they see neighbors or friends get jobs, he argued.
By many, if not all, measures the U.S. economy is booming. This week’s latest confirmation came with this month’s job openings report, released by the Labor Department on Tuesday, which showed 7.1 million job openings — the most since the report began in 2000, a fact that President Trump quickly touted on Twitter.
The Trump administration’s ambitious economic growth projections in part rely on there being enough workers to fill the massive number of current job openings. But as the recovery stretches on, fewer people need jobs because they already have them. The Federal Reserve says that businesses across the country are complaining that it’s harder to find qualified workers to fill the record numbers of openings.
Still, Hassett doesn’t think adding workers back into the economy will be a challenge.