The U.S. recovery is putting people back to work and the growing economy is on its way to restoring full employment. Please go easy on the champagne. When economists talk about full employment, they don’t mean everybody has a job. They don’t mean that even the rosiest economic health can cut unemployment to zero. If unemployment falls too much, inflation will rise as employers compete to hire workers and push up wages too fast. Full employment means that unemployment has fallen to the lowest possible level without provoking inflation. The mystery is what that level might be. In the U.S., according to prevailing ... (full story)