After a lackluster jobs report in September 2021, the latest news on employment gives Americans plenty of cheer about ahead of the holiday season. In total, 531,000 jobs were added in October – outstripping the already optimistic predictions of economists. This caused the unemployment rate to fall 0.2 percentage points to 4.6%. Even with those […]
Americans are returning to the labor force at a quickening rate – do they just really need the work?
The U.S. economy surprised analysts by adding 467,000 jobs in January, overcoming omicron concerns and continuing a long streak of gains, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Feb. 4, 2022. Yet at the same time, the unemployment rate ticked up a notch, from 3.9% to 4%. Confused? Shouldn’t a large increase in jobs drive […]
Jobs are up! Wages are up! So why am I as an economist so gloomy?
In any other time, the jobs news that came down on Dec. 2, 2022, would be reason for cheer. The U.S. added 263,000 nonfarm jobs in November, leaving the unemployment rate at a low 3.7%. Moreover, wages are up – with average hourly pay jumping 5.1% compared with a year earlier. So why am I […]
The Federal Reserve and the art of navigating a soft landing … when economic data sends mixed signals
With inflation easing and the U.S. economy cooling, is the Federal Reserve done raising interest rates? After all, gently bringing down the trajectory of prices without crashing the economy was the central bank’s objective when it began jacking up rates over a year ago. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of an economy’s output, expanded […]
6 ways Canadians can prepare for the upcoming recession
Although it certainly feels like it, and many people believe it, we are not in a recession yet. While a recession is defined as two successive quarters of negative GDP growth, it is essentially a period where economic growth falls significantly and unemployment rates rise. Given the lack of a precise definition, there is not […]