A Job Is Not Enough

Here at the SF Fed, we talk a lot about “full employment,” which our president John Williams describes as the situation where everyone who wants a job is able to find one. Although this is a critically important goal from a macroeconomic standpoint (and part of theFed’s dual mandate), it doesn’t speak to the quality of those jobs or consider the changing nature of work itself and the resulting impact on the financial well-being of workers and families. Whether it’s part-time workers unable to find full-time jobs or low-wage workers displaced from neighborhoods near job centers, it’s becoming increasingly clear that, when it comes to financial stability, simply having a job is not enough.