he construction and finance sectors.Growth in employment in 2000 was 1.9 million; in 1999, the increase in employment equaled 2.8 million. ChangesFor most of 2000, unemployment remained between 3.9 and 4.1 percent of the labor force. In the first three-quarters of 2000, the numbers of individuals in the labor force were increasing at a rate that many observers said could not be sustained without considerable inflationary pressures. The growth in the labor force depends upon the growth of the working age population and increases in the percentage of that group willing to work. Projections are that the size of the group will continue to grow slightly more than one percent a year and that the percentage working will not increase significantly. Under those conditions, the sustainable monthly growth in jobs is about 155,000. The last three months of 2000 have shown growth in the labor force that is less than that sustainable growth rate.Newspapers and magazines are writing about the slowing growth in the U.S. economy. References are pointing to the slowing growth in spending which is resulting in cutbacks in production and in some cases employment. The result of that slowing growth is this month's increase in the unemployment rate and decrease in employment.In May of 1999, the Federal Reserve began a policy of slowing the rate of growth in the money supply and creating increases in short-term interest rates. That policy lasted through November of 2000. The goal was to slow the rate of growth in spending in the economy to be more in line with the growth in capacity. That policy has surely had an affect and evidence of that are beginning to appear in a slower growth in real gross domestic products (GDP) in the last quarter of 2000, a rise in unemployment from October through February, and the slowing increase in the number of jobs. Definition of InflationInflation is a sustained increase in the overall level of prices. The most widely reported...
