Be Well: Why the Labor Market is Cooling Down

<div class="block">Marty Cantor, economic development consultant and CPA, joined Cheddar News to talk about the state of the labor market, particularly as numbers suggest it is cooling down. Cantor said people are holding on to their jobs rather than exploring the market because of lower wages and a smaller pool of options to go elsewhere.</div>

beWell

Well, it is time now for your money with Marty and bringing down inflation really is no easy task. The latest numbers from the federal government really articulate just how challenging it is. So Marty Cantor is here to talk about where and really why consumers are still feeling this squeeze because, you know, we've seen these actions by the Federal Reserve, but then you get new data in and you wonder how is it all going? Well, on one side, the good news is it's going ok, things are coming down. The bad news is that uh the consumer price index is still stubbornly higher than what the Federal Reserve is looking for. They, you know, it's 4.7%. The consumer price index means nothing. But when you compare it to the 2% that the fed is shooting for, that's quite a distance. And so we have, there's a long way to go from where we are today to get to that 2%. And for everybody at home, you know, when you talk about that, you, it's what we're paying the price of everything and it just feels like we've been stuck paying so much for so long it's very frustrating. Oh, it is. It is a, means your dollar is only worth about 95 cents and that's what's causing the problem. Yes, we're much better than when your dollar is only worth 91 cents. And we've improved. But that's where it hurts because your dollar doesn't go as far as it used to and everything costs more and that's what the federal government, the Federal Reserve is trying to address. Uh, and with this, and it's, and with inflation spiking up, uh the interest rates probably will go up another 25 points the next time they meet, uh to try to control uh and get some price stability and control the. So you think they are gonna go up again? Uh No, I think they're gonna go up again because, because, you know, the, there's an old axiom if, if you're gonna make a, a price reduction and, you know, where you wanna go don't nickel and dime, it just do it. Uh And I think that's what they're going to do. Uh because there are still, there are still some economists and some surveys would say that a recession is in danger even though it's maybe 59% you know, but the, the Federal Reserve's only economists have said, uh, we got a 70% chance of, of a recession, you know, but, but those economies must have been wrong before. And so is the fed chairman, so that that's a problem that we're facing. It's, it's too stubborn. I wanna take a look at some of the numbers um that, that we pulled out and some of the categories where we're really seeing the effect of inflation because not everybody is seeing it go up or go down. So let's take a look at that information there because you have uh different categories, things like beef, apples and coffee all costing more. We're also seeing the price of gas spike. But then there are things that are, are costing a little bit less and we have eggs which we had all those problems with eggs for so long. But eggs, chicken milk, but also airfares and used cars and trucks. Which is surprising because that was another category where we really saw some stubbornness. Well, the beef and the apples, that's because there's droughts out in the Midwest and the in the far west and, and the, and uh the farmers have to buy feed in order to feed the cows rather than graze. So that's why that's going up used cars. Remember during the pandemic, uh the new cars because we lack chips. They were being shipped out without chips. Well, the chips are in now and people are buying new cars. So the used car market has come down uh uh chicken and and has come down because there's no bird flu anymore. So these are all these supply chain issues which caused this uh financial pain during the pandemic and they've gone away to replace them. The mortgage rates are higher. They're 20% greater. There are fewer houses on the market and that's all raising the cost of housing. All right, thanks so much, Marty. Can we always appreciate your time?