LAST WEEK

News & Commentary Weekly Highlights:

• Business Insider: Something Is Still a Little Bit Off in the U.S. Labor Market (Thursday)
• Market Watch: Here’s What Doesn’t Add Up in the Fed’s New Forecast (Thursday)
• Wall Street Journal: Half of U.S. May Endure ‘Lost Decade’ of Depressed Employment (Thursday)
• New York Times: Study Finds Public Pension Promises Exceed Ability to Pay (Thursday)
• Market Watch: The Great OK: U.S. Economy Muddles Along (Monday)

 

Top Economic Indicator Highlights:

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (January)

• Job openings: 5.541 million
• Hires:  5.029 million
• Separations (quits, layoffs, discharges): 4.903 million
• Noteworthy: Job openings continued to climb in January, though not quite to levels seen in late summer of last year. Hires and quits lost some of the momentum from recent months, after climbing roughly 10% above their pre-recession levels. Among separations, there were 2.804 million quits and 1.663 million layoffs and discharges. JOLTS data for February are scheduled for release at 10am on April 5.

 

JEC Releases:

• March Federal Open Market Committee Announcement Review (Thursday)
• Quick Takeaways on the American “Middle Class” (Wednesday)
• January State Employment Reports (Monday)

 

THIS WEEK

Upcoming Economic Reports & Releases:

Major Indicators

• Existing Home Sales (10am, Monday)
• New Home Sales (10am, Wednesday)
• Durable Goods Orders (8:30am, Thursday)
• Gross Domestic Product (8:30am, Friday)

 

Reports & Releases

• CBO: Updated Baseline Budget Projections (2pm, Thursday)

 

Chart of the Week:

 

The chart above demonstrates the number of “upper-income” Americans (defined by Pew Research Center as having more than double the median U.S. household income, adjusted for household size) has grown faster than the number of “middle-income” or “lower-income” Americans. In 2015, 51 million Americans were considered “upper-income,” or roughly 1 out of every 5 Americans, compared to 18.4 million in 1971, or roughly 1 out of every 7 Americans. It’s also important to remember that over time, Americans can occupy a variety of income groups, and are not stationary in one income group over the course of their lifetimes. Read more about Americans and the “middle class” in the JEC brief linked above or here.