Joe Biden’s projected victory implies a possible era of significant changes to address the pandemic, expand domestic health care, modernize the nation’s infrastructure and adopt expansionary fiscal policy—all of which will define the economic policy landscape over the next two years. However, the party that controls the Senate will determine the scope of that change, and that outcome is pending the two runoffs for the seats in Georgia. … READ MORE >
Economics
Chart of the Day: A stagnant minimum wage for society’s essential working people
Although some cities and states have imposed higher minimum wages, the federal minimum wage has not kept up with the times. Fifty years ago, people working at the minimum wage were receiving a salary that was 50% of average hourly earnings. Today, the $7.25 per hour minimum wage is 29% of the $25 average hourly earnings of hourly workers. … READ MORE >
Coronavirus update: Defining a national emergency
The spread of the coronavirus continues to accelerate. While it was taking about three to four weeks for the virus to spread to a million new people over the summer months, it took only 16 days for the case count to grow from eight million new infections on Oct. 11 to nine million on Oct. 27. It then took only 10 days for that figure to reach 10 million on Nov. 6. … READ MORE >
Chart of the Day: Employees have returned to work, but 13.3 million remain sidelined by the pandemic
While the recovery in the labor market continues with millions returning to work since local economies began to reopen in late May, roughly 13.3 million people remain dependent on government aid. … READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Estimating unemployment during the pandemic
By adjusting the number of unemployed for the number of people who are not in the labor force but want a job, and the pandemic unemployment rate jumps to 8.0%, our analysis shows. … READ MORE >
U.S. employment report: Unequivocally strong numbers
The end of the 2020 census and the loss of its workers masked a robust 906,000 increase in private-sector payrolls in October that was far stronger than the implied figure of 638,000 would suggest. … READ MORE >
FOMC: Fed policy to remain steady amid economic uncertainty
The Federal Open Market Committee on Thursday kept its policy rate steady at a range between zero and 25 basis points and made little meaningful change to its policy statement. … READ MORE >
U.S. employment report preview: Sustained improvement, downside risk
We expect total employment to increase by 580,000 and the unemployment rate to fall to 7.6% when the October estimate of employment conditions in the United States is released on Friday. … READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims: Modest improvement, but levels still elevated
First-time jobless claims continued to show modest improvement with the top-line figure arriving at 751,000 for the week ending Oct. 31. That is down 7,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 758,000, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. … READ MORE >
An inconclusive outcome: Election produces no winner, expected court challenge
The presidential election produced no clear outcome on Tuesday night, and instead brought uncertainty, financial market volatility and political risk across the business world. … READ MORE >