Someone Notices the Decline in Hours

Most coverage of the April jobs report celebrated the 165,000 new jobs reported for the month which was somewhat better than consensus predictions. Almost no one noticed the decline in the length of the average workweek. As a result of the fall in average hours, the April reduction in the index for total hours worked tied for the largest drop in the recovery.

Catherine Rampell does pick up on this point in a NYT Economix blogpost today. Noting the decline, she raises the possibility that it i...