If You Were Born After 1984, You've Never Experienced This Kind of Job Market

The U.S. economy has finally slugged its way out of the ditches.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Department of Labor job numbers indicate that the labor market improved in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. in 2014.

On their own, those numbers are impressive. But according to the Wall Street Journal, this marks the first time the unemployment rate has shrunk in every state simultaneously since 1984. So if you're under 30, you've never lived in a national economy quite like this. [...]

Who's to thank? Robbie Hiltonsmith, senior policy analyst for liberal think tank Demos, was upbeat about the jobs numbers but said the recovery has little do with national leadership in Washington. He told Mic via email that 2014's job numbers actually happened in spite of government mismanagement.

"National policy has only hurt job numbers. A too-small stimulus, cuts in federal spending, failure to raise minimum wage, etc., have all hurt," Hiltonsmith wrote. "Federal Reserve policy has helped a little, but most of the job growth is simply the inevitable (albeit delayed) rebound of the world's largest economy."

While he noted the unemployment drop can be partially attributed to people leaving the job market entirely, Hiltonsmith characterized the 3.2 million jobs created between January 2014 and 2015 as "a pretty astounding number."