Economic news has not been great lately. In addition to jittery stock markets and evidence of deteriorating business conditions abroad, America’s pace of job expansion slowed in January. But there is reason to believe that the U.S. economic recovery still has at least a few months in front of it.
The economy continues to be led by consumers, and as long as the number of jobs available is expanding, consumer spending should continue to hold recession at bay. Recent data from the Labor Department indicate that at the end of last year, there were five point six million job openings in the U.S.
That is just shy of the all-time record of roughly five point seven million job openings set in July of last year. The number of job openings presently available is nearly three times the two point one million tally recorded in July two thousand and nine, just after the recession ended that June.
Based on this information, the primary problem is not a lack of opportunity, but a skills mismatch. One of the biggest issues facing America is the declining number of job training programs. The number of apprenticeship programs in the U.S. has declined from more than thirty two thousand in two thousand and three to roughly twenty one thousand last year.
