we're used to talking about 'the market' as if it were one monolithic thing, when in fact sectoral and regional differences can be stark and often counter positional. It's also the case that demand for labour is not always a sign of a robust economy or happy society. We have a crying need for healthcare workers for example, but that is because we are rapidly aging society which is increasingly become infirm and have not created the job conditions in healthcare work to encourage enough people to actually do the work. The job vacancy numbers for nurses shoot up - everyone thinks 'wow huge demand in the healthacare sector!' - without recognising this as an outcome of systemic failure to adequately provision for old age
It sounds like Cowen knows exactly what needs to happen to reduce the malaise of "quiet quitting" - show workers that their earnings can/will grow to account for inflation and whatever productivity increases they show, and since morale is already broken from COVID, it is on the employers to trigger the virtuous cycle. Unfortunately, it seems like telling the employers what they want to hear - "keep the beatings coming until the morale improves" - is the only thing he is willing to say.