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From rising inflation to a red-hot job market and the negative gross domestic product in between, economists are divided on the health of the U.S. economy. This comes at a time when the labor market could hardly appear stronger. In July 2022, there were 11.2 million job openings, revealing a shortage of workers for available positions. "The question is how steeply they will fall, how sharply they will fall, if they go back to 7 million [job openings], the level before the pandemic." Not to mention, the labor market is facing off against the "Great Resignation."

More notably for the Fed, the job market not only remains strong, it is starting to behave in ways policymakers have hoped for. For the Fed's hoped-for "soft landing" of lower inflation alongside a healthy job market and growing economy, upcoming data on job openings needs to show vacancies in decline. Perhaps more importantly, the labor force gain was the product of strong flows into the job market, not just, as it sometimes is, a decline in people leaving - an important distinction. The number of unemployed people giving up on job searches and leaving the labor force, similarly, was the lowest, at 1.3 million. Both numbers point to the sort of rising pool of labor and growing "attachment" to the labor force that could help ease wage pressures and also help lower the vacancy rate over time.

☆ FedEx boss tells the US to brace for stagflation because there aren't enough workers to meet juiced-up demand
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

FedEx founder Fred Smith warned that labor shortages could lead to stagflation in the US. "You simply do not have the workers to meet the demand that's been juiced by the printing of money," Smith said. "You simply do not have the workers to meet the demand that's been juiced by the printing of money," the delivery giant's executive chairman told Fox Business's 'Kudlow' on Saturday. "The problem is when that comes head-to-head with the lack of labor we have in the United States to meet the demand," he added. Labor shortages, rather than the coronavirus pandemic, fueled last year's supply-chain crisis, according to Smith.

☆ Some jobs won't recover from the pandemic recession. It could be a good thing for workers.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-17 | by ( Ben Winck | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The US is back to record-high employment, but the labor market looks nothing like it did in early 2020. For starters, many in-person service sectors are still struggling to get back to the employment levels seen before the pandemic. Transit and ground passenger transportation, which includes school buses and public transit, is also still not back to pre-pandemic employment either. "I think overall, accommodation and the broader leisure and hospitality industry will return to pre-pandemic employment levels," Zhao said. The changing labor market could be good for workersThe labor market shakeup isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The White House struck a tentative deal Thursday to avoid a rail strike that risked major disruptions across the United States, with freight workers securing a key demand. Pandemic pressures, including those that scrambled supply chains, worked in freight workers’ favor, logistics experts said. A rail strike would dent many industries, as about 40% of goods that are shipped long-distance rely on the nation’s rail system. Rail workers often are on-call 24/7 year-round and are allotted time off only after being called to a number of consecutive on-call shifts. A labor union source told NBC News that getting rail carriers to negotiate on attendance policies was a major breakthrough.

☆ CIOs at Logistics Companies Call in the Robots
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-15 | by ( Isabelle Bousquette | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +5 min

Chief information officers at logistics companies like DHL Supply Chain North America and GXO Logistics Inc. are increasing investments in robots designed to move inventory around warehouses, but not all robots are up to the task yet, they say. GXO Logistics said it expects to be using more than 5,800 robots globally by the end of this year, up from 3,800 last year, while Kenco Logistics Services LLC plans to leverage roughly 120, up from 30 last year. Warehouse robots from Locus Robotics at a DHL Supply Chain facility. Photo: DHL Supply ChainAmid the robotics ramp-up, CIOs admit that the technology is not always more efficient than human workers or more cost effective. While warehouse robotic technology is mature in some areas, such as transporting goods from point A to point B, it is less mature in terms of picking up and placing down goods, tech leaders say.

☆ Gen Z and millennials aren't the only ones quitting their jobs. Gen X is quietly helping drive the Great Resignation.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-14 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

It's not just millennials and Gen Z who are quitting above pre-pandemic levels. For some, it could be driven by a midlife crisis, in which extreme job stress peaks at age 45. For some, it could all come down to a midlife crisis. Record job openings, financial flexibility, and even a midlife crisis have nudged others to explore new opportunities. While these ages are often peak earnings years, it may not translate to job satisfaction — leading many to explore other job opportunities.

☆ U.S. economy added 315,000 jobs in August as companies keep up hiring pace
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-02 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Nonfarm payrolls rose solidly in August amid an otherwise slowing economy, while the unemployment rate ticked higher as more workers rejoined the labor force, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The economy added 315,000 jobs for the month, just below the Dow Jones estimate of 318,000. The unemployment rate rose to 3.7%, two-tenths of a percentage point higher than expectations. Average hourly earnings increased 0.3% for the month and 5.2% from a year ago, both 0.1 percentage points below estimates. Those payroll and wage gains came amid soaring inflation and concerns over a slowing economy that posted negative GDP numbers in the first two quarters of the year, generally considered a telltale sign of recession.

☆ The U.S. unemployment rate rose in August, and Black workers' labor force participation declined
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-02 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe August jobs report showed the U.S. unemployment rate rise across the board. Meanwhile, Black workers marked the only demographic to see their labor force participation fall. The unemployment rate rose 0.2 percentage point to 3.7% in August, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, Black workers marked the only group that saw labor force participation decline, while their employment-population ratio, which measures what percentage of the population holds a job, also fell. "What's happened is the queue's just gotten longer so the discouraged worker effect is much more acute for Black workers."

☆ How abortion bans widen the gender pay gap and diminish women's economic power
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-26 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

He recently spoke with economics professor Caitlin Myers about the impact of abortion bans. Myers said bans hurt women's economic agency, access to education, and careers. How abortion bans strip women of their economic agencyWhen lawmakers and judges outlaw abortion, they immediately erase a wide array of options for the estimated one in four women who have an abortion in their lifetimes. "Women's earnings are a lot closer to men's, and this is true in the United States and other developed countries." By diminishing women's economic power, abortion bans exclude women from fully participating in their lives and in the economy, keeping them politically and economically dependent on men for their survival.

☆ The US is in the middle of the biggest labor shortage since WW2, Goldman Sachs says
▼ + stars: | 2022-02-24 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The labor shortage has reached "the most overheated level in postwar US history," Goldman Sachs says. The US had a labor force of almost 164 million in January 2022, per seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). There were close to 11 million job openings in the US in December, per seasonally-adjusted BLS data. Restaurants, hotels, and retail had the highest turnover rates in December, BLS data shows. But in constant 1982-1984 dollars, workers' pay actually fell by almost $0.20 during that time period because of inflation, BLS data shows.

☆ The Fed is fed up with inflation and it's going to unwind its pandemic aid sooner than planned
▼ + stars: | 2021-12-15 | by ( Ben Winck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"Inflation developments and the further improvement in the labor market" sparked the move, the Fed said. Fed officials signaled they'll raise interest rates three times in 2022 to cool inflation. In a Wednesday statement, it attributed this acceleration to "inflation developments and the further improvement in the labor market." Though Powell has maintained the surge will be transitory, faster tapering suggests the Fed will more aggressively fight inflation in 2022. Median forecasts from Fed officials see the benchmark rate climbing to 0.9% in 2022 from 0.1%, and higher still to 1.6% in 2023.

In that environment, crooks were easily able to impersonate jobless Americans using stolen identity information for sale in bulk in the dark corners of the internet. When Yvonne Matlock lost her job last year and applied for unemployment benefits online, she was told she was already getting relief money. Through a public records request, NBC News obtained data from the Labor Department, which funds Covid relief unemployment benefits programs, that are riddled with blank values and underestimates. ID.meMore than two-thirds of states, 34, reported no cases of identity theft overpayments in the most vulnerable unemployment benefits program. Cash App, which describes itself as "the easiest way to send money, spend money, save money, and buy cryptocurrency," has been frequently used by fraudsters to move money, law enforcement officials and private consultants said.

☆ Time to demolish old ideas about infrastructure
▼ + stars: | 2021-08-10 | by ( Gina Chon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (Reuters Breakingviews) - A once-in-a-generation vote on U.S. infrastructure means it might finally be time to stop talking about infrastructure – or think more creatively about what the word means. Democrats will now turn to a $3.5 trillion splurge on healthcare, schools and the environment that Republicans resisted in the smaller plan. One problem is an outdated idea of what infrastructure really means. If infrastructure is a priority, anything that gets more output out of Americans deserves the label. It includes $110 billion for roads and bridges, $65 billion to expand broadband access and $55 billion for water supplies.

☆ Call private sector initiative for Women Engagement
▼ + stars: | 2020-12-18 | by ( Alte Articole | ) www.civic.md time to read: +19 min

About Project “ Empowering Women in Tech”:Empowering Women in Tech is a project implemented by ATIC with UN Women and Sweden Support since 2018. 1.1 Private Initiatives for Women Economic Empowerment in TechThe overarching goal of the Call is to support women driven private initiatives to further engage women freelancers and entrepreneurs based on a public call in Partnership with “Empowering Women in Tech” Project, supported by Sweden and UN Women. Measure and make visible the impact of the new or existing initiatives, products, services and solutions, to support private sector engagement for sustainable development and attract more women in IT, support the women entrepreneurship, the women in IT sector growth, the promotion of tech jobs for women, other that may reach the provided goal. The Project plan should contain the detailed elaboration of the concept, analysis of the market, impact analysis of the action versus the objectives of the call, sustainability of the action, if any, envisaged development activities including staff engagement, necessary material means and needed advisory services and trainings. Only expenditures accrued during the project, in accordance with the Project Budget and completed by the end of the project, are eligible for financing.

Persons: ATIC, Gross Organizations: UN Women, TEKWILL, USAID, National Association of ICT Companies, TECH THE MOLDOVAN, OF ICT, Umbrella Organization, Moldovan ICT, ICT, Association, Women, Go, Tech, ATIC, Choose, Tech Women, Tekwill, Government of, Moldovan Government, IBM, Microsoft, Moldovan Association of Private ICT Companies, Ministry, Ministry of Education, Government Center, Women Economic Empowerment, “, UN, Tech Industry, Tech ” Project, Project, Independent, Assurance, an, Technology, – Bank Locations: Sweden, Republic of Moldova, Government, Government of Sweden, Moldova, Chisinau

☆ Next two weeks will be critical for China in coronavirus outbreak, IMF chief says
▼ + stars: | 2020-02-14 | by ( Vicky Mckeever | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

China's National Health Commission on Friday reported an additional 121 deaths nationwide, with 5,090 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus. She explained that not only was this strain of the new virus, COVID-19, different than SARS but China and the world economy had also changed. China only represented 8% of the world economy in the early 2000s and now makes up a 19% share, she pointed out. She added that the world economy at that time was "actually in quite good shape," but was now more "sluggish." Physicians have likened it to the outbreak of SARS, which had a short incubation period of two to seven days.

☆ China's factories try to get back to normal as virus persists. But it's far from business as usual
▼ + stars: | 2020-02-14 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The new coronavirus that began to grab national attention in mid-January has killed more than 1,300 people in mainland China. He noted that given unique factors in China's political economic system, many local government officials are making containment of the virus the top priority. Cities with a low return rate include Guangzhou, the capital of China's largest province by exports. This year, authorities have encouraged people to stay put or return to their places of work in phases. There's also the worry that resuming operations at this point could lead to more infections, and further halts to business operations.

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