Robert Samuelson Is Concerned That the Unemployment Rate Could Be Too Low

Hey, who isn't? His column today raises the possibility that because the long-term unemployed are effectively excluded from the labor market, they don't exert downward pressure on the inflation rate. This means that we should only focus on the short-term unemployment rate, which is already near its average rate over the last two decades.

There are many reasons for not accepting this view. For example, if the number of short-term unemployed dwindled, it is likely that employers would start to...