Uncertainty Does Not Explain Lack of Hiring

The Washington Post's article on the August jobs report included an assertion by Bernard Bamouhl, the chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, that:

"companies find it hard to justify hiring more people because the economic outlook is so unclear."

To use a technical economic term, this claim is wrong. We can see this by looking at average weekly hours. If companies would otherwise be hiring people, but are restrained by uncertainty, then they would be working their current workf...