LAST WEEK

News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:

• Wall Street Journal: Fed Report Says U.S. Household Net Worth Declined by $1.2 Trillion (Thursday)
• Market Watch: U.S. Budget Deficit Widens in November to $65 Billion (Thursday)
• Pew Research Center: The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground (Wednesday)
• Wall Street Journal: As the Gig Economy Changes Work, So Should Rules (Wednesday)
• Bloomberg: Yellen Powers of Persuasion Face Test to Avoid Liftoff Dissents (Tuesday)

 

Top Economic Indicator Highlights:

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS, October)

• Job openings: 5.383 million
• Hires:  5.137 million
• Separations (quits, layoffs, discharges): 4.863 million
• Noteworthy: Job openings remained little changed in October, down significantly from a recovery peak of 5.668 million in July. The quits rate remained low at 1.9 percent, indicating that workers still lack confidence about switching jobs. Among separations, there were 2.8 million quits and 1.7 million layoffs and discharges.

 

THIS WEEK

Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:

Major Indicators

• Consumer Price Index (8:30am, Tuesday)
• Housing Starts and Building Permits (8:30am, Wednesday)
• Industrial Production (9:15am, Wednesday)
• Regional and State Employment and Unemployment (10am, Friday)

 

Reports

• Federal Open Market Committee Announcement and Forecasts (2pm, Thursday)

 

Chart of the Week:

The trajectory of the decline in labor force participation rate has changed markedly from the long-range estimates produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics more than a decade ago. The labor force participation rate has fallen at a faster rate than most statistical agencies could have predicted, reaching 62.9 percent in 2014, more than six years earlier than previous projections. As reported this month, the BLS projects that the labor force participation rate will fall to 60.9 percent by 2024.