America's labour market boomed in 2014. By December there were 3m more people in work than a year earlier (see chart). Unemployment was 11 percent-age points lower. The ratio of jobseekers to openings fell from a peak of seven to one in 2009 to two to one in November 2014. What was behind this? The answer in a new study will not please Democrats.~* The job market is hot largely because of a cold-hearted Republican reform, it concludes. Before the financial crisis, jobless workers in most states qualified only for 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. In June 2008 that was extended, thanks to a new federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) programme. By the end of 2013 the average unemployed American could expect benefits to last 53 weeks; in three states they could get 73 weeks' worth.
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