This enigma is widely discussed among economists. Opinions range from, we are seeing the benefits of many years of increased productivity, fear of job loss makes people work harder, and this is just a pattern in recessions, employment will pick up later in the economic expansion, when new hires can really pay for themselves.
I want to add my two cents. First, you could layoff every green worker and many government workers (it has been done before) and no one would know the difference. We need to add in all the people who complain about their jobs, nearly everyone who has a job based solely on union rules and everyone who works for an incompetent supervisor or manager.
That would add up to far more than 7 million. So the issue disappears for me.
