A long-run rate of roughly 2% per year, he says

Problems Unsolved and a Nation Divided (PDF):

Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the U.S. economy created private-sector jobs at a long-run rate of roughly 2% per year decade after decade.

Here's my graph:

Graph #1: Decade Averages of Annual Growth Rates, PAYEMS at FRED

You can get "roughly 2%" if you average the three decades together, the '70s and '80s and '90s. But the only "long run rate" on the graph is downhill. The graph does not show "roughly 2% per year decade after decade". Those words indicate a level trend.

"But the job growth rate began to decline around 2001" they add.

Taking liberties with the facts, at Harvard.


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