Register now!

Register now for the upcoming session “How to Turn Employees Into Talent Brand Promoters” with Marcus Buckingham and Dr. Nela Richardson. Learn more >>

FEATURED POST

June 5, 2023

MainStreet Macro: Gen Z joins the workforce

It’s graduation season. Some young adults will head to college, and some college graduates will continue with their studies. But most members of this year’s graduating class will become new entrants into a dynamic and evolving post-pandemic labor market.
Read more
Filter by:

MainStreet Macro: Taking the temperature of financial conditions

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Where I live, in the Northeast, early spring can be unsettling. Warm, sunny hours can be followed by chilling rains, relentless wind, snow, or worse. Like spring’s unpredictable weather, financial conditions can be volatile, as we witnessed last month.
Read more

MainStreet Macro: The goods on goods

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

We all know by now that the labor market is tight. But it’s also fragmented, with different sectors responding differently to labor shortages and higher interest rates. As Main Street employers scout for workers, for example, big tech companies continue to announce big layoffs.
Read more

MainStreet Macro: Off the clock

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Whether they’re at the office, on site, or at home, the hours people put in at work are all important, to both them and their employers. Employers use the number of hours worked as a lever to control the quantity of output their employees deliver. And hours worked are a key input when it comes to analyzing the labor market. They’re a consequential determinant of wages, profits, inflation, and the productive power of the economy.
Read more

MainStreet Macro: Unseasonable warmth

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

I live in the Northeast, where February has brought unseasonably warm weather. The mild temperature reminds me of the U.S. economy, which is much warmer than many economists and analysts expected it would be at this point in time.
Read more

MainStreet Macro: Back to basics

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

With inflation, Silicon Valley layoffs and the federal debt ceiling dominating economic headlines, the real economy can get lost. Today, to mark the 100th edition of MainStreet Macro, I thought we’d get back to basics. Let’s start with a reminder of why Main Street is the economy’s growth engine.
Read more

MainStreet Macro: Deciphering January data

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

The start of the year often brings confusing economic data, and this January was no exception. Extreme weather across most of the U.S. muddled the picture even more. Here’s a guide to making sense of last month’s numbers.
Read more

MainStreet Macro: Nela’s Recession Playbook

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

The biggest economic debate of 2023 is whether the U.S. is heading toward a recession. And the reason it’s being debated is because the data shows evidence for both sides. In the no-recession camp, the economy grew by 2.9 percent last quarter, besting analysts estimates, and inflation slowed for the second straight month in December. And while we’ve seen big headlines on corporate layoffs, these job losses aren’t yet reflected in the data. Jobless claims for the first three weeks of January were near record lows.
Read more

MainStreet Macro: Shaking off the gloom in Davos

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

The annual World Economic Forum gathering in the mountainside retreat of Davos, Switzerland, is most commonly described with a single word: elite. After attending the meetings last week, I’d like to offer three more words that perhaps more constructively capture the ethos of Davos this year: Optimism, dealmaking, and hope.
Read more