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THE 'FIELD OF DREAMS' OF THE '90s: THE LABOR MARKET''Killer hours are a myth'' (Economic Trends, Aug. 3) purports to argue that Americans are not working more and that this is contrary to the usual image of the overworked American. Unfortunately, the article misrepresents my earlier work in this area and ignores the most recent research. The 66-hour-per-year increase in annual working time that took place between the late 1960s and 1980s is anything but trivial. It is equivalent to a week and a half of extra full-time work each year and reflects a sharp reversal from the downward trend in annual hours before 1982. Moreover, in new research that includes data through 1995, we find that the upward trend in hours continues right through the first half of the 1990s. Indeed, the average figure for weekly hours among prime-age workers has risen to 41 hours, the highest in the past 25 years. While this trend toward long working time by experienced workers no doubt places greater stress on families and may be contributing to the lower level of civic engagement in all types of voluntary organizations, it has one powerful salutary macroeconomic effect: We now find that we can get down to national unemployment rates well below 5% without running the risk of runaway inflation. This is because as demand for workers increases, part of the demand is being satisfied by increased working time by those already working. The sharp increase in working time among Americans helps to explain the mystery of price stability in this fast-growing economy. We have a ''Field of Dreams'' labor market where, if you build increased demand, there is increased supply to meet it.
Barry Bluestone
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Updated Aug. 13, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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