All #US Stories

The current labor market is often described as "tight," and it may be hard to visualize what that really means. Considering the ratio of unemployed people to job openings gives a clearer picture of exactly how tight or slack the labor market is.

The Federal Reserve has just announced the highest interest rate hike since 1994.

Summer is upon us. School’s out, vacations are beginning, and people are ready to hit their favorite seasonal locales. However, facing a labor shortage, businesses might have a hard time keeping up this summer.

No, not yet. Higher worker pay isn’t the main culprit behind inflation, but some warning signs suggest that could be the case later this year.

The U.S. economy added a solid 390,000 net new jobs in May 2022. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.6%, nearly a 50-year low.

Employers are still desperate for workers. Layoffs are rare, despite anecdotes to the contrary. Quitting remained elevated, but the “Great Resignation” isn’t getting worse (for now).

Determining how the economy is performing is surprisingly difficult. COVID-19 made economists' jobs even harder, requiring them to develop entirely new methods to measure trends in the labor market.

How does economic growth happen? It’s a hard question to answer but economists have tried for centuries. Perhaps the most famous model came from MIT economist Robert Solow in 1956. The Solow growth model specifies three factors that fuel growth: productivity, capital, and labor. 

Despite ongoing conflict in Europe and the highest inflationary period since the early 1980’s, the US labor market continues to grow briskly.

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week, but some educators aren’t feeling so appreciated.

Prices are rising – fast. After nearly three decades of stable prices, the US economy is experiencing a surge of inflation.

It’s an emergency not just for the housing market but for the job market too.

Recruiting became less expensive in Q1 2022, despite it being a workers’ market.

Since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it has been estimated that 50% of paid hours were done remotely, compared to just 5% pre-pandemic.

After the initial COVID shock to the US economy, the bounceback in job growth has been remarkable. There remains an unsatiated appetite to hire by US employers.

Quits rates are at an all time high, reaching 3.0% in November of 2021. Interpreting this trend has two camps: a cultural shift where people have a lower willingness to work, or a cyclic pattern exhibited during times of quick economic recovery.

In the period after a peak Omicron surge and before war broke out in Eastern Europe, the US labor market recovery accelerated, as hiring ramped up and more people returned to the labor force.

The COVID recession that began in 2020 and the subsequent recovery through 2021 has been unlike anything in U.S. economic history.

The U.S. economy added a shocking 467,000 net new jobs in January 2022, far above expectations, despite the surge of Omicron cases that saw 15 million people get COVID last month.

Workers who want a job are getting them, but employer demand is slowing a bit from the frenetic pace of job gains earlier in 2021.

The U.S. created 531,000 net new jobs, and previous months’ numbers were revised upward.