Authors: Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, Columbia University

Lagging employment recovery and continuing high levels of unemployment have marked the macroeconomic scenario in the United States. So it is natural that the United States, which chaired the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh, would use its privileged position as the host to invite the US secretary of labour, a well-known union activist, to convene a meeting of the employment and labour ministers on the jobs situation prior to the next G20 heads of state meeting in Canada.

The macroeconomic aspects of the labour situation are indeed a proper focus of such a meeting. Read more…