FWIW - US unemployment has dropped to 3.6% and 7.0 million people are working now who were unemployed last year.
There are a number of factors that have reduced the unemployment rate and taken it back to where it was pre-pandemic. To quote your own words. "............ people get used to living with widespread disease......" It has also been highly effected by the graying of America.
The US GDP is double the average it has been going all the way back to 1976 (and the Energy Crisis of the Ford years) at 5.7%. Inflation will do that.
Wages are up 5.6% -- but still lower than inflation. Yes and this is a danger area and a potential threat to sustaining inflation. As people look to increase their wages and employers are compelled to increase wages because of a limited workforce pool it increases prices, which sustain the inflation.
And the deficit has been paid down by $1.3 trillion, which may make some difference to upcoming infrastructure projects. The deficit has not been paid down but reduced. The deficit relates to how much the government budget for the fiscal year exceeds expected revenues simply because the government has a habit of not being able to balance the budget. A lot of the reductions in the deficit were the result of congressional marks against the presidents budget request that lowered the actual fiscal appropriation from what the president requested. The deficit simply rolls into the national debt.
What is true is that online buying has dropped back to nearly pre-pandemic levels as people get used to living with widespread disease and going back to their preferred local stores.
