Kathryn Anne Edwards, Columnist

The US Labor Market’s Best Just Isn’t Good Enough

Ample demand for workers hasn’t delivered benefits, fixed disparities or eliminated abuses.

May 11, 2023 at 10:00 AM UTC

By Kathryn Anne Edwards

Kathryn Anne Edwards is a labor economist, independent policy consultant and co-host of the Optimist Economy podcast.

Still a lot of work to do.
Photographer: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

The US labor market will probably never be better for workers than it is right now. As such, it sheds much-needed light on a question crucial to the country’s longer-term prosperity: What problems can the market solve, and what must policy instead address?

The short answer is that policymakers have a lot of work to do.