Many very smart people have been working overtime trying to make sense of the May jobs numbers.  Economists have been poring over them.  Journalists have tried to translate them – some to explain to those who aren’t economists, some to soothe the fears of the average American, and of course, some to play to their audiences.

Compensation consultants comb over the numbers looking for clues.  Will they affect IT jobs? Will this relieve pressure over in another industry? Will job gains overall, regardless of industry, drive people back to stores and restaurants?

Suddenly the image came into focus.  Regardless of who you are, economist, journalist, or comp consultant, we all keep looking to the past for contextual clues to interpret these numbers.  That is about as sophisticated as the sorting toys that you gave toddlers in the 1960s. 

But that is how everyone IS looking at the jobs numbers.  “Oh, we have this many jobs openings and this many people out of work, so let’s just stack them up, and we know they will fit in this order. DONE.”

Kids sorting toys evolved.  In the 1970s, toys emerged that required you fit several different shapes into the space.  Far more analogous to trying to match skills and openings.  Then came the toy with the crazy shapes fixed upon wavy wires – they wouldn’t stay in place, very representative of today’s labor force. Today, kids’ sorting toys are so complex that they demand collaboration, one of those soft skills.

We all need to get that simple ring stacking sorter out of our head.  It will never be that simple again.