To understand America’s job market, look beyond unemployed workers

Sitting in a medical clinic recently, as a young-looking nurse extracted blood from his veins, your columnist’s mind turned to the flexibility of the American labour market. How long, exactly, had she been on the job? The somewhat shocking answer: it was her first month. Six weeks of training was all it took, she explained, to make the transition from eyelash technician to phlebotomist, which offered higher pay and better hours.Workers ditching old jobs for better ones has been a feature of the post-covid American economy. Early last year about 3% of Americans quit their jobs in any given month, the highest in two decades. Since July that has fallen to 2.3%, back to its pre-pandemic level. The decline is a sign that the labour market is gradually normalising. It has gone from being ultra-tight—beset by a seemingly endless worker shortage—to merely moderately tight.