Three Data-Driven Tips to Jumpstart Your Career
Julia Pollak Julia Pollak

Three Data-Driven Tips to Jumpstart Your Career

The question on many job seekers’ minds is how to get their careers off to the best start. Three key rules emerge from a decade of ZipRecruiter data and research and corroborating evidence from numerous outside studies.

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Inflation is Hotter Than Expected Again
Julia Pollak Julia Pollak

Inflation is Hotter Than Expected Again

The consumer price index (CPI) and core CPI (which excludes food and energy) came in slightly hotter than expected this morning. The CPI rose 0.4% over the month, with year-over-year inflation rising to 3.2% from 3.1%. Core CPI also rose 0.4% over the month, falling to 3.8% from 3.9%.

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Inflation Was Firmer Than Expected Due to the Undersupply of Housing
Julia Pollak Julia Pollak

Inflation Was Firmer Than Expected Due to the Undersupply of Housing

The consumer price index came in slightly hotter than expected this morning, but showed continued gradual progress in the fight against inflation. The CPI rose 0.3% over the month, with year-over-year inflation falling to 3.1% from 3.4%. Core CPI rose 0.4% over the month, holding steady at 3.9%.

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Is It Too Early To Declare “Mission Accomplished” on Inflation?
Julia Pollak Julia Pollak

Is It Too Early To Declare “Mission Accomplished” on Inflation?

Personal income and consumer spending both rose at a rate of 0.7% in December, well above the expected 0.5% pace. Incomes were boosted by robust wage growth and rising asset returns, which have expanded Americans’ real disposable personal income—that is, income after taxes and inflation—4.2% over the past year.

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Reaction: The Job Market Slowed But Dodged a Recession in 2023
Julia Pollak Julia Pollak

Reaction: The Job Market Slowed But Dodged a Recession in 2023

Friday’s Jobs Report was mixed, with solid job gains (+216K) and wage growth (4.1% over the year) in the establishment survey, but weak employment growth (just +72K) and participation-related figures in the household survey. Factoring in downward revisions to the prior months’ figures, the 3-month average job gain was 165K, right in line with the 2019 average, suggesting that the labor market has come back to pre-pandemic normal.

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Why 2024 Will Unlock the Second “Roaring Twenties” 
Julia Pollak Julia Pollak

Why 2024 Will Unlock the Second “Roaring Twenties” 

The 2020s got off to a rocky start. In 2020, the U.S. suffered job losses of unprecedented magnitude as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2021, thanks to the end of the stay-at-home mandates, and a population flush with stimulus money, the economy recovered so rapidly that it overheated, creating an acute shortage of labor and rapid inflation. In 2022, the Fed responded to 40-year high inflation with a steady diet of interest rate increases, the fastest interest-rate increase cycle on record. In 2023, both the labor market and inflation have cooled, setting us up for what many economists believed was a low-probability scenario, “the soft landing.”

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