EMPLOYMENT: The Unyielding 5%

In Cleveland, Warner & Swasey Co.

has rehired hundreds of machinists who were laid off during the recession of 1970. In La Crosse, Wis., Trane Co. is hiring new workers off the street for the first time in three years. In Indiana's South Bend-Elkhart industrial belt, more than 1,000 new factory jobs are waiting to be filled. Such stories are not unusual anywhere in the U.S.: a booming economy has created 2.7 million new jobs in the past year. But the surge —and the soaring cost of living that attends it—has also drawn 2.1 million new job hunters into the...