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☆ More than half of US workers want to quit their jobs in 2023, a new survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

61% of US employees are considering handing in their resignations in 2023, according to a LinkedIn survey. While half of the respondents are fearful of layoffs, 95% of them are confident about their career prospects. A near record high of 4.2 million US workers left their jobs voluntarily in November 2022. That's even though half of the survey respondents are afraid of layoffs. Latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows 4.2 million employees left their positions voluntarily in November 2022 — near a record high of 4.53 million in November 2021.

☆ One chart shows that a much-feared wave of mass layoffs has yet to crash into the US economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Despite widely-covered job cuts at some big companies, mass layoffs have yet to emerge in the broader economy. The Department of Labor data shows that there hasn't been a large climb in US initial jobless claims. Instead, seasonally adjusted claims have been relatively low week after week, unlike back in March 2020 when claims soared and peaked in early April. That strongly suggests that the overall US economy isn't seeing the kind of large-scale layoffs that typically mark a recession. And data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) program also shows shows layoffs in the US have been low.

☆ Union membership dropped yet again in 2022 to the lowest rate on record, showing that workers still face an uphill battle in organizing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The union membership rate fell in 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Union membership has been mostly declining for decades, even though union workers tend to make more money. At the same time, the union membership rate, which tracks the percentage of workers in a union, fell to 10.1% — the lowest rate on record, per BLS. The union membership rate of 10.1% in 2022 was just half the 20.1% in 1983, the first year BLS compiled comparable data. Even so, the union membership rate for retail workers is just 4.3%, down from 4.4% in 2021.

☆ Companies raising prices to get ahead of skyrocketing costs was one of the biggest drivers of surging inflation, a new study shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Over the past two years, soaring inflation has hit Americans in their wallets. Some pointed to soaring inflation as a byproduct of corporate greed, as firms took advantage of the economic environment to rake in record profits. Even across industries that had "very different relative demand and inflation rates" throughout 2021, markup growth remained pretty much the same. Throughout 2021, companies saw their profits soar, pocketing their highest margins since December 1950. They added that "this suggests that the source of high markup growth in recent years was not a steady increase in monopoly power."

☆ The 8 fastest-growing jobs in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Madison Hoff | Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

LinkedIn has published its annual "Jobs on the Rise" report for the US, highlighting hot fields. These roles are among the fastest-growing in the US, according to LinkedIn's newly published 2023 Jobs on the Rise list. "People now think of their jobs as vehicles, not the destination," he said. Indeed, many of the jobs on this list have grown directly because of the pandemic's effect on the economy and the workplace, according to McCaskill. "A lot of jobs on this list are ones that help companies do more with less," he said.

☆ Billionaires are collectively adding $2.7 billion to their fortunes daily — and their growing share of wealth shows trickle-down doesn't work
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A new report from Oxfam looks at how much wealth billionaires have accumulated. The report finds billionaires are collectively adding $2.7 billion to their fortunes daily, as inflation eats up workers' wages. As top tax rates fell, billionaire wealth grew — and Oxfam says wealth taxes are one solution. That's based on the difference between billionaires' wealth from March 18, 2020, adjusted for inflation, and November 30, 2022. However, while wealth taxes are popular, they're unlikely to ever advance in the US.

☆ Small businesses are saving the economy from a recession for now
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Data shows a boom in small businesses likely to employ workers, suggesting job growth could keep going well into the future. Small businesses have seen their openings soar, compared to larger businesses, from where they stood before the pandemic. While openings for small businesses are not as high as they were in spring 2022, there still are more openings in these kinds of businesses than big ones. Yet Swonk remains optimistic that small businesses will prevail. "Although small businesses fail at a much higher rate than any other businesses out there, I have some hope in the traction that they've already gained," she said.

☆ One chart shows how employment has changed throughout the US economy almost 3 years after the start of the pandemic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The US labor market has been above its pre-pandemic February 2020 employment level for a while. Some sectors are still below pre-pandemic employment almost three years since the official start of the pandemic. While leisure and hospitality isn't back at its pre-pandemic employment level, it still has been experiencing large monthly job gains as workers are needed to meet demand. Air transportation was 11.7% above its February 2020 employment level in December. It continued to expand throughout the pandemic and was 30.8% above its pre-pandemic employment as of December.

☆ Gig workers choose freedom in their careers — but some worry about how retirement will look
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A survey of 2,000 freelancers revealed more than half of respondents felt pressured to save a certain amount for retirement. The average freelancer anticipates needing at least $350,000 saved up to retire, Talker reported. One gig worker told Insider financial literacy and investments are key to planning for timely retirement. "When I'm able to decide what I want to do with my time, there are things I can do to help me learn and grow my own business," Hill told Insider. However, Hill said retiring from gig work in a timely manner is something only the financially literate can achieve, adding that odd jobs alone probably aren't enough to successfully reach that milestone.

Moderating inflation and a strong labor market may mean that no recession will come in 2023. At the same time, the US labor market has looked at the possibility of a recession and essentially shrugged. Although the US saw higher gains in the first few months of 2022, the job growth in December still shows the labor market is hot. "Today's inflation numbers are good news, good news about our economy," President Joe Biden said during Thursday remarks. Regardless, the labor market will continue to cool, and the unemployment rate will still rise — which will be uncomfortable, Zandi said, but not a recession.

☆ One chart shows how inflation is slowing down even faster than you think
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Madison Hoff | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The annualized 3-month change in the CPI has recently been lower than the year-over-year change. The following chart shows how the year-over-year change in the Consumer Price Index compares to that of the annualized 3-month change over time:After rising from 0.7% in September to 2.4% in October, the annualized 3-month change then dropped to 2.1% in November. While the unadjusted data shows the annualized 3-month change was flat in December, the 3-month annualized inflation rate was 1.8% when looking at seasonally-adjusted data, which still suggests a dramatic cooling off of inflation in the last few months. Blinder wrote that "when the inflation rate changes abruptly, 12-month averages can leave you watching recent history rather than current events." "So is today's true inflation rate a mere 2.5%, meaning that Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve can relax?

☆ The US closed out 2022 with another big drop in inflation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Thursday's Consumer Price Index report highlights how the inflation situation ended in 2022. Inflation remained sky-high, with the Consumer Price Index increasing year-over-year by 6.5% in December. According to Thursday's release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index rose 6.5% year-over-year in December. Looking at month-over-month figures, the Consumer Price Index fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.1% between November and December. Thursday's report highlights that the year closed out with inflation still elevated and above the Federal Reserve's 2% target rate.

☆ Meta and Apple are no longer among the best places to work, according to a new Glassdoor ranking
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Grace Kay | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta and Apple fell off Glassdoor's list of best places to work for the first time in over a decade. Other tech companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft made the top 20 of this year's list. While Meta and Apple fell off the list, tech companies still dominated the US rankings, accounting for 40% of the organizations on the list. Top tech companies like Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Google made the top 20. There are some tech companies that entered the list," Zhao said.

That's good news, since the Federal Reserve has been trying to tame wage growth. Cooling wage growth could mean the Fed won't need to induce a recession to bring down inflation. Bunker said that wage growth "is still robust but starting to moderate a little bit." And wage growth has slowed even more when looking at data from the most recent months, rather than just the year-over-year change. "We're seeing wage growth at 4.6% year-over-year.

☆ The US added 223,000 jobs in December, another sign there's no recession yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US added 223,000 jobs in December 2022, more than the job growth forecasted. Friday's labor market figures add to the evidence that the country wasn't in a recession in 2022. Other economic data outside of labor market figures, like consumer spending, also suggest the US isn't in a recession. "A labor market this strong means an imminent recession is highly improbable," Bunker wrote. "This year will pose many challenges for the US economy, but the labor market looks set to enter with considerable strength."

☆ The next recession might hit the wealthy more — and a 'richcession' could be good news for low-wage workers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The next recession could be a "richcession," according to the Wall Street Journal. A K-shaped recovery — where high-earning Americans saw jobs and wages grow, while the converse happened to lower-earners — began to take form during the recession. For the bottom 50%, real wealth growth from February 2020 to September 2022 is 226.6%. To be sure, although the recession on the horizon may be considered a richcession, that doesn't mean it won't affect lower-income Americans. "Lower income, lower wage, lower education workers, Black workers, workers of color" tend to see larger spikes in unemployment during downturns, according to Bunker.

☆ Over 8 million workers just got a raise. This map shows the states that raised their minimum wages.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Georgia and Wyoming have state minimum wages below the federal minimum wage. If the federal minimum wage was higher than the state's minimum wage, we noted the federal amount as the last minimum wage paid to employees in the state. The following map shows what year the minimum wage increased and the current minimum wage in every state:Over half the states have minimum wages above the federal minimum wage of $7.25. California, which has been raising its minimum wage annually over the past few years, saw its minimum wage increase to $15.50 on January 1, 2023. The effects of a minimum wage increaseSome economists and critics of a minimum wage increase argue that a raise would negatively impact employment, but that may not be the case.

☆ The 30 highest-paying jobs in America
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Some US professions have workers earning a lot more than the annual average salary of $58,260. The 30 highest-paying occupations all earned an average of six figures annually, all above $150,000. Cardiologists had the highest average annual salary among the detailed occupations, with an average of $353,970. All 30 of these occupations also make more than the overall average for all occupations in May 2021 of $58,260. Below are the 30 highest-paying jobs in the US, along with the estimated number of people employed in each occupation as of May 2021.

☆ It's pretty rare for Americans to claim negative income on their taxes like the Trumps did for 4 years between 2015 and 2020
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

An IRS report shows it's not that common for taxpayers to report adjusted gross income below $1. In 2020, the total income was -$4,694,058 and adjusted gross income was -$4,795,757. Trump's tax return isn't the only one in 2020 that shows a negative adjusted gross income. The following chart shows how many individual income tax returns there were for tax year 2020 by adjusted gross income. In contrast, there were over 30 million returns with adjusted gross income from $50,000 to under $100,000 and just about 30 million returns with adjusted gross income of $30,000 to under $50,000.

☆ This map shows how fast each US state grew or shrank in a year
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

That means, according to the Census Bureau, it saw the largest percent increase among states and DC. The below map shows which states saw increases and decreases between 2021 and 2022. While many states saw their populations climb, New York, Illinois, Louisiana, and several other states around the country saw their populations shrink. A Census Bureau post stated that this is the first time since 1957 that Florida is the state with the fastest-growing population. While those states saw small gains, Kansas and Michigan saw their populations fall very slightly, shrinking by 0.03%.

☆ Holiday shoppers racked up tons of debt — but no one seems to be in a hurry to pay it back
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Americans took on an average of $1,549 in debt for the 2022 holiday shopping season, according to a LendingTree survey. One in three holiday debtors admit it will take them five months or more to pay back what they owe. Over a third of respondents told LendingTree it would take them at least five months to pay off holiday shopping debt. And while two-thirds of shoppers told LendingTree they hadn't planned to go into debt this holiday season, about a fifth of holiday debtors spent $500 or more on the most expensive gift they purchased. However, Schulz wrote, debt easily paid off in a month or two isn't much to be concerned about.

☆ The 39 highest-paying jobs you can get without a bachelor's degree
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Rachel Gillett | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Method and data sourceThere are plenty of high-paying jobs that require only a two-year associate degree, postsecondary nondegree certificate, or even just a high-school diploma. Insider decided to look at which jobs do not require a bachelor's degree or higher and are also high-paying. To do this, we used the latest educational data and salary figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some occupations from the 39 highest-paying are part of the transportation sector. In our ranking, we included each occupation's median annual salary and employment figures from May 2021.

☆ Is the US in a recession? Not yet, but experts think we could be in one soon.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, told CNBC that there could be a "mild recession induced by the Fed." Here's what experts are saying about a recession in 2023Some Wall Street experts and economists think the US could avoid a recession next year, and that even if one comes, it will likely not be as severe as the downturns after the 2008 financial crisis and the early Covid pandemic. As Insider's Brian Evans reported, economists at Bank of America think there will be a mild recession too. While some think a recession is on the horizon, there's a chance that the US may not enter one at all. "I think we would need to see a significant deterioration in the labor market for me to think we're in a recession, and we have not seen any significant deterioration yet," Bunker said.

☆ Gig workers are choosing freedom over being chained to a desk — but that still leaves question marks around retirement
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

☆ The lowest-earning Americans and the middle class got a pay cut in 2021, while the richest saw the biggest wage growth
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The bottom 90% of workers actually saw their wages decline in 2021, as the top 1% saw average wages grow. A new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute looks at wage growth in 2021, using annual earnings from the Social Security Administration. They found that the top 1% saw average real wages grow 9.4% from 2020 to 2021, while the bottom 90% saw wages decline ever so slightly by 0.2%. "The top 1% now amasses a record share of total earnings, while the bottom 90% share of earnings has hit a historic low." The bottom 90% saw a much smaller increase of 28.7% based on averages in 2021 dollars — from $28,415 in 1979 to $36,571 in 2021.

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