, Columnist
Why Wages Are Stuck Even When Labor Is Scarce
The chief economist at the Bank of England proposes that a culture of insecurity discourages workers from changing jobs and lets employers avoid giving raises.
Andy Haldane, chief economist of the Bank of England.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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Tight labor markets might be their own worst enemy.
Rock-bottom unemployment across the major economies hasn’t spurred a surge in wages or inflation. It keeps confounding observers as jobless rates plumb new depths almost every month: a 48-year low in the U.S., the lowest ever in Germany and a 43-year low in the U.K. (In Japan, where labor has its own quirks, the number is 2.4 percent.)