Tag: U.S. economy

U.S. women won’t reach pay equity with men for at least 60 years

Axios Logo

Despite some progress, it will take women in North America approximately 61.5 years to have economic parity with men according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report for 2021. 

Why it matters: Women in the U.S. have made strides in political representation, but they still lag behind men in job market participation and income, according to the report.

  • The COVID-19 pandemic has widened disparities, both in the U.S. and abroad, with women exiting the workforce at higher rates “partly due to their disproportionate representation in sectors directly disrupted by lockdowns,” the report says. Continue reading.

Consumer confidence surges in March to highest point in year

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence surged in March to the highest reading in a year, helped by increased vaccinations and more government economic support.

The Conference Board said Tuesday its consumer confidence index rose to 109.7 in March, the best showing since it stood at 118.8 in March of last year as the pandemic was beginning to hit the United States. The index stood at 90.4 in February.

The present situations index, based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions, rose to 110.0, up from 89.6 in February. The expectations’ index, based on consumers outlook for income, business and labor market conditions six months into the future, also improved, rising to 109.6 in March, up from a reading of 90.9 in February. Continue reading.

Stimulus drives up consumer confidence

Politico logo

Stimulus checks boost confidence, especially at lower end — In the “happy headlines for the White House” department, the $1,400 checks and direct deposits now showing up in mailboxes and bank accounts across America are driving up consumer confidence once again. 

Per new data from Morning Consult out this morning: “U.S. consumer confidence increased more rapidly following the signing of the American Rescue Plan than it did following the signing of the two prior coronavirus stimulus bills.

“Over the past five days, confidence among low-and middle-income consumers increased more sharply than confidence among high-income consumers, signaling that the third stimulus bill may help counterbalance the K-shaped recovery in confidence and spending.”  Continue reading.

Those Corporate Bosses Are Ridiculously Overpaid — And Now There’s Proof

National Memo logo

A new study shows that the top five executives of major corporations pocketed 15 to 19 cents of every dollar their companies gained from two recent tax cuts. The paper, by Eric Ohrn at Grinnell College, should be a really big deal.

The basic point is CEOs and other top executives rip off their companies. The officers are not worth the $20 million or more that many of them pocket each year.

This is not a moral judgment about their value to society. It is a simple dollars-and-cents calculation about how much money they produce for shareholders. The piece suggests that it is nothing close to what they pocket. Continue reading.

Economists warn positive jobs report obscures challenges ahead

The Hill logo

A surprising February jobs gain and drop in the unemployment rate is obscuring the long road to a full recovery from the coronavirus recession, economists say.

The U.S. added 379,000 jobs last month, more than double what analysts had expected, and saw the jobless rate drop to 6.2 percent, the lowest level since March 2020.

While the February employment report showed signs of an accelerating recovery, the job gains were just a drop in the bucket compared to the deep damage built up within the labor market over the past year. The deceptively low unemployment rate also ignores the millions of Americans who’ve been forced out of the labor force by COVID-19 and its disproportionate toll on women of color. Continue reading.

Economy adds 49K jobs in January, unemployment falls to 6.3 percent

The Hill logo

The U.S. added 49,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, a 0.4 percentage point drop, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

The uptick in jobs shows the recovery from the coronavirus recession resumed last month after December job losses, but the report underscored the deep damage yet to be repaired from the pandemic-driven economic crisis. 

“This jobs report suggests signs of a nascent overall recovery, but food insecurity, costs of caregiving, persistently high unemployment, and small business stagnation necessitate emergency relief that targets those being left behind — especially women, people of color, and lower income workers,” said Nicole Goldin, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, in a Friday analysis. Continue reading.

If Congress doesn’t act, 12 million Americans could lose unemployment aid after Christmas

Washington Post logo

Deadlines set by Congress early in the pandemic will result in about 12 million Americans losing unemployment insurance by the year’s end, according to a report released Wednesday — a warning about the sharp toll that inaction in Washington could exact on the economic health of both individual households and the economy at large.

According to the report from unemployment researchers Andrew Stettner and Elizabeth Pancotti, those Americans will lose their unemployment benefits the day after Christmas — more than half of the 21.1 million people currently on the benefits — due to deadlines Congress chose when it passed the Cares Act in March amid optimism the pandemic would be short-lived.

Another 4.4 million people have already exhausted their benefits this year, according to Stettner and Pancotti, who wrote the report for the Century Foundation, a public policy research group. Continue reading.

Why Trump Voters Used The Economy As An Excuse To Vote For Him

The answer has little to do with the economy and a lot to do with race and partisanship.

Donald Trump will leave office with the economy considerably worse off compared to where it was when he was elected four years ago.

The unemployment rate hit 6.9% in October, down from record double-digits in April, the Labor Department announced Friday. This is an improvement, but when Trump was inaugurated in 2017, it was 4.8%. The jobless rate is now basically what it was right before Barack Obama took office in the middle of a financial crisis.

Economic output is lower than it was last year. One in 10 Americans said they aren’t getting enough to eat, up substantially from last year. An eviction crisis is on the horizon. With coronavirus infection rates continuing to rise, there are signs that the improvements we’ve seen in economy could slow or even reverse. Last week, 1.1 million Americans filed for unemployment. The Black unemployment rate is still in the double digits. Continue reading.

What a contested election means for the economy — and your wallet

Washington Post logo

It looks increasingly likely that the United States is going to keep experiencing a ‘K-shaped recovery’

Americans woke up Wednesday morning to an undecided presidential election, which could be the case for some time, depending on legal challenges and recounts. For the economy, that means uncertainty is here to stay in 2020.

Business leaders and investors tend to hate uncertainty, and this political situation adds more of it as the nation is already dealing with a second big wave of coronavirus cases and a contentious battle in Congress over another stimulus package.

The early read among economists and Wall Street analysts is to buckle up for a wild few weeks. Continue reading.

U.S. economy faces severe strains after election with Washington potentially paralyzed

Washington Post logo

Political gridlock looms over possibly turbulent period for economy amid spike in coronavirus cases, expiration of federal benefits

America’s economy faces severe new strains in the two months between Tuesday’s election and January, a period when Washington could be consumed by political paralysis and gridlock.

This window is typically used by successful presidential candidates to plan for the outset of their administration, but several large economic sectors are bracing to be hit by both an increase in coronavirus cases and the arrival of winter weather.

These factors could exacerbate extreme slowdowns in the travel, restaurant and hospitality industries and further depress an oil industry already roiled by low prices. Continue reading.