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How Much Slack Is in the Labor Market? That Depends on What You Mean by Slack

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  • Murat Tasci
  • Randal J. Verbrugge

Abstract

Estimates of labor market slack can diverge a great deal depending on how slack is defined. We calculate slack using five different concepts that all focus on a single labor market indicator, the unemployment rate. We show that the estimates all provide useful?but different?information. We argue that choosing the best measure of slack depends on the question being asked. If the question is, ?Has the unemployment rate reached its longer-run normal level?? then our answer is, ?Almost.? But significant uncertainty surrounds the estimates; and others may wish to consider additional labor market indicators.

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  • Murat Tasci & Randal J. Verbrugge, 2014. "How Much Slack Is in the Labor Market? That Depends on What You Mean by Slack," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Oct.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcec:00026
    DOI: 10.26509/frbc-ec-201421
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jordi Galí & Frank Smets & Rafael Wouters, 2012. "Unemployment in an Estimated New Keynesian Model," NBER Macroeconomics Annual, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(1), pages 329-360.
    2. Lars E. O. Svensson, 2011. "Practical Monetary Policy: Examples from Sweden and the United States," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(2 (Fall)), pages 289-352.
    3. Kenneth Beauchemin & Saeed Zaman, 2011. "A medium scale forecasting model for monetary policy," Working Papers (Old Series) 1128, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
    4. Murat Tasci, 2012. "The Ins and Outs of Unemployment in the Long Run: Unemployment Flows and the Natural Rate," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 1233, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    5. Andrea Stella & James H. Stock, 2012. "A state-dependent model for inflation forecasting," International Finance Discussion Papers 1062, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    6. Edward S. Knotek & Stephen J. Terry, 2009. "How will unemployment fare following the recession?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 94(Q III), pages 5-33.
    7. Lars E. O. Svensson, 2011. "Practical Monetary Policy: Examples from Sweden and the United States," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, pages 289-352.
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    Cited by:

    1. Murat Tasci, 2019. "Challenges with Estimating U Star in Real Time," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue November.
    2. Richard Ashley & Randal J. Verbrugge, 2019. "The Intermittent Phillips Curve: Finding a Stable (But Persistence-Dependent) Phillips Curve Model Specification," Working Papers 19-09R2, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, revised 14 Feb 2023.
    3. Carola Conces Binder, 2021. "Central Bank Communication and Disagreement about the Natural Rate Hypothesis," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 17(2), pages 81-123, June.

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