It's a miracle -- disabled people are going back to work

The numbers of people collecting disability payments rose steadily for years, and for the cost conscious among us it was troubling to see another government entitlement growing at such a pace. The prevailing theory was that someone on the disability dole would never go back to work. And skeptics among us suspected that there might even be some malingerers in the group.

So now comes Neel Kashkari, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, with an OP-Ed titled Unemployment Isn’t What It Used to Be. The point he makes is that the Fed needs to watch different aspects of the employment data when trying to determine how to achieve stable prices and maximum employment.

But here's the part that jumped out:

Remarkably, more than 70% of people who got jobs in April indicated the previous month that they weren’t looking for work. For two decades, through expansions and recessions, disability drove increasing numbers of prime-age workers out of the labor force. Economists feared this trend would never reverse. Yet in recent years people who previously had considered themselves disabled have been entering jobs. This is a wonderful development, but it adds to policy uncertainty.

(Bold added for emphasis.)

A booming economy can work miracles.

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2:10 PM 5/12/2019

Comments

[Victoria]

I loved reading this good news. You brightened my day. Thank you!