Despite measures by the current administration to recover “American jobs” from foreign lands, policies have again proved ineffective against unemployment figures. These figures may rise or fall, but the unemployment rate does not normally exceed the rate of available jobs within the country.

However, since 2021, the U.S. has more unemployed people than job openings. The most worrying thing is that usually these types of figures were preceded by an economic recession. The discrepancy between available jobs and the rate of unemployed people was greater toward 2008-2009 when the Great Recession began, an economic crisis that began with the collapse of the real estate market and spread to all financial systems, affecting mainly the U.S. and Europe.

The other period in the past 25 years with a large gap between available jobs and unemployed people was during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people lost their jobs due to the widespread quarantine established in most countries.

However, even during elections and afterward, it is not comparable with either of the two crises mentioned above. Unless, the present problem is to be seen as a belated effect of measures to manage the pandemic.

Now, these figures show that the tactic of imposing high tariffs on imports from other countries so that companies decide to move their factories within U.S. territory does not work. It may be too early to give a conclusive judgment, but for the moment that return of “American jobs to good Americans” is not helping.

It is also noteworthy that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates is higher than the average unemployment rate, indicating that rather than there being a general lack of employment, there is a lack of employment for people with specialized knowledge and not machine operators or workers in jobs which do not require qualifications.

This trend of high unemployment began in late 2022, just after the peak that marked the end of restrictive measures to control the pandemic. While much is said about how Biden’s measures to protect the economy and especially the workers, it is also true that during his mandate the national debt and inflation increased.

The low unemployment rate was at the cost of sacrificing parts of the budget and rightly increased the debt. It is probably too early to judge the economic policies of Trump, but the truth is that no change in the trend is seen.