Summary List Placement Summer vacation is getting expensive. Prices for airlines, hotel stays, food, and car and truck rentals have all soared over the past several months as part of a larger inflation trend amid supply chain issues and an economic reopening. But they all hit new heights in June. Just look at the chart […]
Summary List Placement Prices are on the upswing for many goods, and people could start feeling the pinch at their next grocery store visit. In particular, beef saw a large increase in prices over one month compared to some other food items. The price of beef rose by 4.5% in June compared to May, per […]
Summary List Placement As the US transitions into the recovery phase of the pandemic, tipped workers across the country are leveraging their strength in numbers and sending a clear message to the restaurant industry that they should be paid what they deserve. The sub-minimum wage for tipped workers is a direct legacy of slavery that […]
Summary List Placement A photo of a Burger King sign saying “we all quit” went viral this week after a group of nine disgruntled workers resigned from a Lincoln, Nebraska, outlet of the fast-food chain over working conditions. The sign outside the restaurant, which has since been taken down, said: “We all quit, sorry for […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday said he’s pushing Democrat-only infrastructure package larger than $3.5 trillion, as Senate Democrats kicked off a frenzied legislative period. “I’m going to fight to make that proposal as robust as it can be,” Sanders told reporters outside the White House after an afternoon meeting with President Joe […]
Summary List Placement Jobs are once again being added to the labor market and the economy is showing signs of recovery from the pandemic. But this recovery is not equal, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan represents an opportunity to change that. “You cannot have a strong workforce, a strong […]
Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume dropped yet again, this time falling 11 basis points to 3.76% in the period ending July 4, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. It’s the 19th straight week of forbearance decreases. The MBA estimates that 1.9 million homeowners are currently in forbearance plans. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance decreased eight basis […]
Summary List Placement A record number of millennials wanted to buy homes in 2020, but the real estate market can’t keep up. So finds financial services company First American, which measures potential homeownership demand based on lifestyle, societal, and economic factors in what it calls its Homeownership Progress Index (HPRI). When potential homeownership demand exceeds […]
Hispanic homeowners are more likely to have adult relatives currently living with them — and are more likely to have lived with relatives themselves, prior to buying their home. Per a recent Redfin study of 1,500 homeowners, 52% of current Hispanic homeowners have at some point lived with family or friends without paying rent to […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden may not have yet canceled student debt for every borrower, but new hires to his administration suggest the crisis could be inching up on his agenda. On Monday, the Education Department announced five new hires to the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office, four of which were former employees at […]
Summary List Placement If you’re looking to get a sweet deal on a used car to take advantage of the warm summer weather, it’s not going to happen. The market for secondhand cars is absurdly and unprecedentedly hot right now. Used vehicles went for a whopping 40% more in June than they did before the […]
Summary List Placement Papa John’s is paying bonuses of up to $400 as the restaurant industry scrambles to retain workers amid a huge labor shortage. About 14,000 staff at company-owned restaurants, and in its supply chain, can get up to $400 paid in increments over the next six months. Papa John’s didn’t say how it […]
Summary List Placement The labor market is weird right now. A lot of people remain unemployed, even though the number of job openings is high and businesses are desperate to hire. Americans that do have jobs are quitting at record-breaking rates. In other words, a major reshuffling is going on in the labor market. As […]
Summary List Placement Debt is all-American, Astra Taylor says. And she doesn’t mean that in a good way. Taylor, who founded the Debt Collective, which calls for the cancellation of all forms of debt, namechecks Thomas Jefferson as a founding father of how we understand debt today. In the early 1880s, he wrote in a letter […]
Summary List Placement Boats sit on dry land. Once-lush palm trees are now brown and shriveled. And waterways that were formerly deep and flowing have been reduced to puddles of toxic residue. This is the landscape in parts of California, which is experiencing a historic mega-drought that is expected to strain the state’s electrical grid […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Bernie Sanders indicated that he would oppose a Democrat-only spending bill if its price tag didn’t top $3 trillion, brushing anything lower as too meager. It may set the stage for a confrontation between Sanders and moderate Democrats looking to restrain the size of a follow-up package. In an interview with […]
Summary List Placement Former President Donald Trump cautioned Senate Republicans against signing off on a bipartisan infrastructure bill and told GOP legislators to maintain the tax cuts that the party enacted during his tenure. In a statement on Friday, Trump derided Republican members who are working with President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats as RINOs, […]
Summary List Placement America is still in a seller’s market when it comes to housing, and could stay there until next year. Prices are climbing at the fastest pace in more than three decades, and homes are frequently selling above their list price, according to the National Association of Realtors. In May, the average listing […]
Summary List Placement The US job market is in an interesting place. Despite a pick-up in jobs growth, payroll employment remains about 6.7 million its pre-pandemic peak and roughly 9.5 million below the trend if hiring had continued at the same pace, indicating a significant degree of slack. On the other hand, several widely followed […]
Summary List Placement Chipotle has started accepting TikTok videos as resumes for job applications, continuing a cultural shift in US retail towards meeting applicants on their own terms. “Given the current hiring climate … it’s essential to find new platforms to directly engage in meaningful career conversations with Gen-Z,” Marissa Andrada, Chipotle’s chief diversity, inclusion, […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden fired Social Security Commissioner Andrew Saul and his top deputy on Friday afternoon, sparking a face-off as Saul says he doesn’t intend to step down from his post. Saul, a Trump appointee, had triggered fierce criticism from Democrats and advocates, who said he gummed up the speedy distribution of […]
Summary List Placement Over half of the states in the US have opted out of federal unemployment benefits early, citing the programs as potentially fueling the current labor shortage. But that doesn’t seem to quite be the case. A Friday note from JPMorgan researchers Peter B McCrory and Jesse Edgerton looks at the impact on […]
Summary List Placement Vaccination may be keeping COVID-19 at bay, but the pandemic’s fallout lives on in supply shortages and labor scarcity, the Federal Reserve said Friday. March stimulus, vaccination, and the reversal of pandemic restrictions allowed businesses to reopen and unleashed a wave of consumer demand through the first half of the year, but […]
Summary List Placement The trucking industry has been yelling about a driver shortage for decades. Since 2011, executives have listed the supposed shortage of truck drivers as a top 10 concern in an annual industry survey. When it comes to recruiting, kids these days are perhaps the most vexing for trucking big wigs. Millennials and […]
Summary List Placement Have you heard of this labor shortage? It’s pretty wild, with millions of jobs open, and workers just not filling them. It’s a sign of the remarkable success of the vaccination campaign under President Joe Biden. The economy began reopening in earnest through the spring and is rapidly approaching normality in the […]
Summary List Placement Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania was filmed saying Republicans are opposed to Democrats carrying out the wishes of most voters. The video was posted Friday by Democratic activist Lauren Windsor, several days after posting another one showing a Texas GOP congressman saying he favored “18 months of chaos” until the 2022 […]
Summary List Placement Several Republican lawmakers were secretly filmed imploring conservative activists to flood a pair of centrist Democrats with messages of gratitude for holding firm on the filibuster, a 60-vote threshold that most bills need to clear the Senate. It’s the latest video posted by Democratic activist Lauren Windsor, only days after posting another […]
Since day one of my mortgage career, my main role was to help Hispanic borrowers with responsible lending. For the past 21 years, I have been deeply entrenched in truly understanding the unique needs and cultural nuances of homebuyers with diverse backgrounds. Being an active originator helps me keep a pulse on the market and […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden is set to crack down on employers who collaborate to suppress workers’ wages in an executive order scheduled for Friday. The White House published details of the upcoming order Friday morning. Biden will push the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “prevent employers from […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden’s Education Department on Friday made progress in its promise to reform the student-debt system by canceling student debt for three more groups of defrauded borrowers. The Education Department announced on Friday that it had approved borrower defense claims from 1,800 borrowers who attended the for-profits Westwood College, Marinello Schools […]
Summary List Placement Hamptons residents and businesses are scrambling to find workers during the growing US labor shortage — and one said he had to take off his $800 sneakers to trim the weeds because a landscaper didn’t show up. “I had to buy a lawnmower and cut my own lawn. I wanted flowers planted […]
Summary List Placement Baby boomers hold more real-estate wealth than any other generation. The Silent Generation held that distinction until 2001, according to Michael Kolomatsky’s analysis of Federal Reserve Data for The New York Times. As was typical of older generations, many had begun selling their homes to move in with their families or into […]
Summary List Placement Prominent conservative groups are gearing up to pressure Republicans to oppose President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal, blasting it as a “basic betrayal of conservative values.” The groups leading the effort include FreedomWorks, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, the Conservative Action Project, and the Leadership Institute. They are sending a letter to […]
Summary List Placement A company that handles 8.5 million Americans’ student loans is shutting down after lawmakers like Elizabeth Warren accused it of misleading borrowers, lying to Congress, and failing to properly issue loan forgiveness. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) notified the Education Department on Thursday that it will not extend its 12-year-old […]
Summary List Placement It’s summer and Americans are hitting the road and traveling again. According to the US Energy Information Administration, travel on roads and streets is up 54.6% in April 2021 from the same time a year ago when many states had stay-at-home orders in place. If you’re planning to take a road trip […]
Summary List Placement All 50 states agree on something: Student-loan servicers, or the companies that charge you interest if you have any debt from higher education, need to be reined in. On Tuesday, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), comprising financial regulators from every state, joined the North American Collection Agency Regulatory Association (NACARA) […]
Summary List Placement Last month, the city of Los Angeles laid out a strategy for its reinvention. By 2028, when the Olympics arrive in LA, the city will lose its status as “car capital of the world,” according to its new, lengthy roadmap. It plans to employ additional policing technologies, digitize public transit and, in […]
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell eight basis points from the week prior to 2.9%, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. According to Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, last week’s dip followed the concurrent drop in U.S. Treasury yields earlier this week. “While mortgage rates tend to follow Treasury yields closely, other factors […]
Summary List Placement The number of layoffs in the US hit a record low in May, jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed. It’s a sign that companies are clinging onto their workers during a severe labor shortage. The layoffs and discharge rate dropped to 0.9% in May, according to the BLS […]
Summary List Placement Low pay, bad benefits, and a stressful workplace are putting off former restaurant and hotel staff from returning to the industry, according to a survey by job site Joblist. Massive lay-offs, remote working, and caring responsibilities have forced thousands of Americans to consider switching their careers during the pandemic. Some were forced out […]
Summary List Placement A GOP congressman from Texas said in a secretly taped video that he supports blocking Democrats with “18 months of chaos” so Republicans have a shot of reclaiming Congress in the 2022 midterms. “For the next 18 months, our job is to do everything we can to slow all of that down […]
Summary List Placement As the economy continues its strange reopening trajectory, May once again saw workers quitting in droves. The latest data release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 3.6 million workers opted to leave their jobs, a quit rate of 2.5%. That’s lower than April’s 20-year high, where just shy of 4 million […]
Summary List Placement Starter homes are running dry, and it’s a big pain for those who need them most — millennials. The generation, which turns ages 25 to 40 this year, has reached peak age for first-time homeownership. More millennials became homeowners than any other generation in 2020, driving a yearlong housing boom. But this […]
Summary List Placement Most Americans spend over a decade planning for the golden years of retirement, with many relocating to areas with better weather or a lower cost of living. A new study by Bankrate.com analyzed the best — and the worst — states in the US to retire in. The final rankings are based […]
Summary List Placement In a normal labor market, the number of open positions that businesses are hiring for tends to go up as unemployment goes down, as available workers become more scarce and openings become harder to fill. Like so many other aspects of American life, the pandemic has at least temporarily shattered that relationship. […]