Might this be the first economic downturn attributable to a labor shortage? That shortage is weighing on output. It is also driving up wages, but the resulting wage-price spiral is eroding consumers' purchasing power as prices are rising as fast as wages. The solution is productivity, but it remained very weak during H1-2022. Consider the following:
(1) Today's JOLTS report showed 11.3 million job openings, or 1.88 jobs available for each of the 6.0 million unemployed during May.