With the fall in headline unemployment to 5.1% and the robust gains in monthly jobs numbers, many commentators are looking for the Federal Reserve to raise the target Fed Funds rate. This flies in the face, of course, of the other half of the Fed's dual mandate (stable prices), as headline inflation is still well below their alleged 2% target.
It is instructive, then, to look at other metrics. Below is a measure of unemployed persons per job opening. This, of course, does not include the marginally attached or those employed part-time for economic reasons.
This is very encouraging in and of itself, but anemic wage growth still indicates the time for tightening is a ways off.
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