Despite record-low interest rates, the pace of the current economic recovery has been only moderate. One reason is that the positive impact of lowered interest rates on consumer purchases of durable goods has diminished. Comparing the current economic recovery with those that followed the...

The strength of the nascent economic recovery--and of the labor market--will depend importantly on labor productivity. By itself, faster productivity growth contributes to faster output growth. At the same time, stronger productivity gains allow firms to increase output without adding workers....

At the turn of the 21st century, labor force participation in the United States reversed its decades-long increase and started trending lower. In the four years since the start of the recent recession, the labor force participation rate experienced a far bigger drop than in any previous...