More wonkishly stated, the Fed does most of its forecasting and decision-making based on the Phillips Curve, which basically slaps a coefficient between unemployment and wages. However, the Fed has re-jiggered the definition of "unemployment" and "wages" so much in the past 20 years that their coefficients no longer work. The model itself is fine: people will pay more to hire someone if they can't attract anyone at a shitty salary. However, the market incentives are such that "shitty salary" is attractive for (A) benefits (B) credit rating (C) rental references (D) income stability. Effectively, the conservative business model has made unemployment so dystopian that Victorian workhouses are attractive.
It comes down to what you want your economy to do. If you want your economy to maximize profits, you're going to get as close to feudalism and slavery as the law will allow. If you want your economy to maximize employment, you're going to skunk the shit out of profits. Labor vs. Capital, sunrise sunset.