New York Times (December 26)
“Despite lingering inflation, Americans increased their spending this holiday season, early data shows. That comes as a big relief for retailers that had spent much of the year fearing the economy would soon weaken and consumer spending would fall.” It appears that “solid job growth is allowing people to spend more. And even though consumer prices have risen a lot in the last two years, wages have grown faster on the whole.”
Tags: Consumer spending, Economy, Holiday season, Inflation, Job growth, Lingering, Prices, Relief, Retailers, U.S.
USA Today (August 21)
“The labor market seemed to defy gravity last year, generating more than 200,000 jobs a month despite a historically low unemployment rate that made it harder for employers to find workers. Turns out job growth wasn’t as robust as it appeared.” The Labor Department just issued its “largest downward revision in a decade.” Total job gains in the year ended March 2019 were revised downward by half a million. Based on this average monthly job growth was closer to 170,000, than the initial estimates of 210,000.
Tags: Defy, Employers, Gravity, Job growth, Labor Department, Labor market, Unemployment rate, Workers
New York Times (February 6)
Investors believe “policies to stoke growth are going to work so well that they will overheat the economy, and force the Federal Reserve to try to slow things down by raising interest rates faster than expected. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. Don’t forget what set off the plunge on Friday: better-than-expected job growth numbers.”
Tags: Economy, Fed, Growth, Interest rates, Investors, Job growth, Overheat
New York Times (January 12)
“Hands down, 2014 was the best year for the labor market since the Great Recession hit in late 2007.” Nevertheless, the “recent progress does not so much point a way forward as highlight weaknesses that need to be corrected and risks that need to be avoided in order not to backslide.” Job growth has yet to catch up with population growth, and continues to be concentrated in the lowest paying areas.
Tags: 2014, Backslide, Great Recession, Job growth, Labor market, Pay, Population, U.S.
New York Times (April 3)
Adding 216,000 jobs in March, the U.S. economy “marked the 13th straight month of private-sector job gains,” but “growth is still weak.” Gains are tiny compared to what needs to be achieved. And as federal and state governments rush to curtail spending, there is increased chanced that the economy will again head southward. “Government spending, job-creation programs and regulations to ensure that there isn’t another crash would help the economy and lead to more jobs.”
Tags: Economy, Job growth, Spending, U.S.
