Update 808 — Sprint: September and Beyond:FY25 Budget, Harris Tax Proposals, Jobs Report This week’s leading macroeconomic news: the August jobs report, which showed that the American labor market has solidly shifted into lower gear, with job gains, 142,000 for the month, notably cooling. Also, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris debuted a new set of …
Update 801 – Job Gains Slow to 114KAs Congress Heads for August Recess This morning’s weaker-than-expected jobs report showing just a net 114,000 positions added in July suggests that the Fed’s decision earlier this week to hold interest rates steady instead of initiating cuts may have been too hawk-ish. With the labor market still strong, …
Update 666 — Jan. Jobs Gain of 517KGood News but a Quandary for the Fed Today’s blow out jobs report indicated US employers added 517,000 jobs in January – many more than forecasters had estimated and a spike not seen since July of 2022. The report brought mixed reactions. In a speech this morning, Biden …
Update 661 — A Soft Landing in 2023?Jobs, CPI, Tracking Fed Plane in the Sky As we enter a new year, the economy appears to be on the mend. Last year, inflation began accelerating and stayed elevated throughout. As yesterday’s CPI report makes clear, prices continue a descent thanks (only in part) to the Fed’s …
Update 645 — Industrial Policy 2.0:A New Era in Economic Investment? As the 117th Congress draws to a close and the 118th Congress draws closer, most major legislative priorities outside of the FY22 budget and NDAA have been disposed of. A signal accomplishment of this Congress — obscured from view but present in some of …
Update 612 — Running on the Economy The Part of the Glass That is Half Full You run on the economy you have, not the one you had planned on. In part one of two perspectives on running in this economy, we start today with the glass-half full. Per Friday’s glowing jobs report, the U.S. …
Update 606 — Fed’s 50 bp Rate Hike:Tight Labor Market Cause and Effect Per this morning’s jobs report, the US economy added 428,000 jobs in April, average hourly wages are up 5.5 percent from a year ago, and unemployment stayed at a mere 3.6 percent – a near 50-year low – showing that Americans are getting back …
Update 580 — Enough Sinema Verite:Rays of Hope in the Economic Picture Senators Manchin and Sinema doubled down yesterday on their opposition to Senate filibuster reform and in essence, the critical voting rights package adopted by the House yesterday, which needs a reform of the Senate filibuster rule’s 60-vote threshold to pass. You might be …
Update 573 — A Number of Anomalies:Takeaways from Nov. BLS Jobs Report You could get the wrong idea about the jobs picture in the U.S. from this morning’s top-line figure in the BLS jobs report for November. Despite an anomalous showing of just 210,000 jobs added and the service sector shedding jobs, unemployment dropped to 4.2 percent and …
Update 563 — Labor Market Review:Participation Down Tho Benefits Cut The U.S. added 194,000 jobs in September but 183,000 people dropped out of the labor force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ September jobs report, released Friday. It’s the first report since federal unemployment programs ended on Labor Day, offering yet more evidence that pandemic-era unemployment …
