I'd expect the correlation to be significantly less strong at the lower end of the market, particularly in a service-based economy like the US; worker productivity has a pretty minimal impact on number of burgers flipped per hour. They're minimum wage jobs because virtually anyone can do them, but unfortunately for people in low wage brackets there isn't an infinitude of unskilled employment opportunities to go around. It's pretty basic microeconomics that labour markets don't clear.
Sure, intuitively you'd expect some very marginal employment opportunities to disappear, but the empirical evidence shows that companies prefer other options; raising prices, cutting profits or non-labour costs, increasing worker productivity where possible adjusting opening hours etc. so the effect on net unemployment is often minimal or non-existent.
Sure, intuitively you'd expect some very marginal employment opportunities to disappear, but the empirical evidence shows that companies prefer other options; raising prices, cutting profits or non-labour costs, increasing worker productivity where possible adjusting opening hours etc. so the effect on net unemployment is often minimal or non-existent.