The Producer Price Index (PPI)
See Producer Price Indexes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):"The Producer Price Index (PPI) program measures the average change over time in the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output. The prices included in the PPI are from the...
Inflation gauge increased 0.4% in February, as expected and up 6% from a year ago
By Jeff Cox of CNBC.Inflation still seems high, although there might be some good news here.Recently I was optimistic that things would start getting better. See my Feb. 9 post The seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index was up 0.94% in the last six months of...
Are we waiting for a "Godot" recession that might never arrive?
Economists have talked about a "Goldilocks" economy, one where there is just the right enough aggregate demand to put us at the full-employment GDP so that there is some economic growth and inflation and unemployment both stay low (see graph at the end of this...
The percentage of 25-54 year-olds employed rose 0.3 percentage points in February; average hours worked fell slightly
One weakness of the unemployment rate is that if people drop out of the labor force they cannot be counted as an unemployed person and the unemployment rate goes down. They are no longer actively seeking work and it might be because they are discouraged...
Social & Economic Trends: People living alone, food imports, grocery self checkouts, U.S. population, teen births, unions
Here are excerpts from various articles"In 1960, just 13 percent of American households had a single occupant. But that figure has risen steadily, and today it is approaching 30 percent. For households headed by someone 50 or older, that figure is 36...
Inter-industry competition can affect labor markets.
See Cooler Pay Gains Add to Debate on When Fed Might Pause Rate Hikes by Gabriel T. Rubin and Nick Timiraos of The WSJ. Excerpts: "Eric Sedensky, facility and operations manager at American Leakless Co., got a more than $4,000 raise at the end of last year—the...
The percentage of 25-54 year-olds employed rose 0.1 percentage points in January; average hours worked were up
One weakness of the unemployment rate is that if people drop out of the labor force they cannot be counted as an unemployed person and the unemployment rate goes down. They are no longer actively seeking work and it might be because they are discouraged...
Why has the price of eggs risen so much?
See Soaring egg prices prompt demands for price-gouging probe by Josh Funk of The Associated Press. Excerpts: "The spike in egg prices has been attributed to the millions of chickens that were slaughtered to limit the spread of bird flu and farmers having to...
Why inflation might be coming down
In yesterday's post I said the Consumer Price Index was up just 0.16% from June to December last year (although that is not seasonally adjusted). But that was after it went up 7.0% in 2021 and was up 6.2% in the first six months of 2022. Here are a couple of...
