Jobs

A Tale of Two Labor Markets

Update 396 — The Contrast is Striking:Workers Tell Tale of Two Labor Markets For those on the lookout for harbingers of recession — today’s New York and Atlanta Fed projections for startlingly low 4Q19 growth being the latest — the labor market presents a unique challenge.  Unemployment is neither a leading nor lagging indicator. It spikes …

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Spotlight on Manufacturing

Update 380 — Spotlight on Manufacturing: Trump, Uncertainty Make America Wait Again  The NY Times last week quoted Sheri Menelli, co-owner of RJM Music, seller of Chinese LCD screen imports based in Vista, CA: “We keep hearing on TV that China is paying for the tariffs… I can tell you that right now, I’m paying …

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What’s the Gig Idea, Anyway?

Update 364 — What’s the Gig Idea, Anyway?Labor Mobility: an Independence Day Inquiry Labor mobility, the willingness and ability of workers to move — geographically, or just from firm to firm — seems aided by technology and made more promising by workers’ increasing readiness to change jobs and on short notice, with “job” coming to mean project …

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Bear or Bull Market: What’s the Beef? (January 11)

Update 322 — Bear or Bull: What’s the Beef? What Market Volatility Means for Real Economy Markets are notoriously difficult to read, let alone predict.  And market performance correlates to growth and other macroeconomic factors in an opaque way.  But the increasingly erratic capital markets are arresting attention and arousing concerns. Which of these real …

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What do Amazon and the GM Layoffs Portend? (November 27)

Update 314 — An Economy Shifting Gears: What do Amazon and the GM Layoffs Portend? Major tidal shifts and cross-currents underlying the changing American industrial landscape have been on full display in recent weeks.  Last month, Amazon announced it was going to base its second headquarters out of both New York and Virginia, promising to …

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Peering over the Fiscal Cliff (Apr. 11)

Update 262 — Peering over the Fiscal Cliff: Trillion-Dollar Deficits Far as the Eye Can See Earlier this week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the federal government’s annual budget deficit will reach $1 trillion next fiscal year.  Under current CBO expectations, the national debt will exceed $33 trillion by fiscal 2028, up from …

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