U.S. labor market signals are conflicting to an "unprecedented" degree, but those suggesting labor market slack should be given more weight than those pointing to tightness, according a paper published Monday by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. The paper looked at 26 labor market measures that typically move in tandem and found that during the current recovery they are giving wildly divergent signals about the health of the job market. The job openings rate, for instance, suggests the job market is much tighter than the unemployment rate; the labor force participation rate points to much more slack than detected in the unemployment rate.
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Core Consumer Inflation Soars to Levels Not Seen Since 1992
Consumer prices excluding the volatile food and energy components soared by 3.1 percent in the year to April, surging past the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target and reaching levels not seen in nearly 30 years.
The so-called core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, which excludes food and energy and is the Fed’s preferred method for gauging inflation, rose 0.7 percent in April after rising 0.4 percent in March, the Commerce Department said on Friday.
The core PCE rise of 3.1 percent in the year to April was above economists’ forecasts of 2.9 percent, with May 1992 being the last time this inflation gauge saw a similar year-over-year vault.
Supplemental unemployment compensation (UC) from the federal government has been helping Ohioans make ends meet during the unprecedented economic dislocation the pandemic has caused. Gov. Mike DeWine’s decision to cut off the additional $300 a week on June 26, 10 weeks before the benefits expire, is cruel punishment for more.