J obless Rate Appraised
WHEN IT COMES to economic issues, nothing sticks in the public mind like the monthly unemployment number. ThatÛªs why Mr. NixonÛªs men lie awake nights wondering what to do about the jobless rate, which has persistently hovered around 6 per cent for about a year.</br></br>Increasingly, they are beginning to suggest that the longtime goal of 4 per cent unemployment will have to be abandoned for a higher rateÛÓmaybe 5 per centÛÓbecause trying for 4 per cent is bound to create too much inflation.</br></br>Democratic or RepublicanÛÓ would disagree that the overriding economic dilemma of our times is how to achieve full employment with reasonable price stability.</br></br>So far as the PresidentÛªs chief advisers are concerned, they accept 4 per cent as a socially desirable target. But' they point to shifts in the composition of the labor force (mostly more women and youngsters looking for jobs), as explained best by George Perry of the Brookings Institution, to show that the goal is unrealistic.</br></br>Economic Council Chairman Herbert Stein discussed the problem frankly in an interview recently with The Washington Post. Asked if he viewed a 5 per cent unemployment rate as ÛÏmore normalÛ for these times, he responded; ÛÏWell, I donÛªt quarrel with that. I did make the point and to some length about the fact that . . . the composition of the population would make you think that if 4 per cent was a natural rate earlier it would now be higher. . . . Maybe it (the number) is five. I donÛªt regard five as a target, but a lower rate probably will have to be achieved by methods other than pumping up the economy.Û