The economy is more than markets and headlines. We examine jobs, wages, inflation, housing, business, and financial systems to understand who benefits, who is left behind, and what the numbers actually mean.
When the Downturn Arrives, Someone Has to Absorb It A business facing a weak market has a limited set of moves. It can cut costs, borrow against better months ahead, shrink its headcount, or close. What some Nigerian employers are doing instead is subtler and, for workers, more consequential: keeping the staff, keeping the storefront,…
Amazon is investing $230 million in pay and benefits for more than 100,000 Whole Foods Market employees, increasing the average store wage to more than $21 an hour beginning September 28. Once benefits are included, the company says average total compensation will rise to roughly $29 an hour. The scale matters because the changes go well beyond a conventional…
For most of the last two decades, the American labor market told Black families a story simple enough to organize a life around: get the degree, and the odds improve. That story is now under revision, and the revision is being reported as good news. The Wall Street Journal, drawing on a new analysis from…
The Atlanta Regional Commission has put a number on the region’s housing shortfall, and the number is roughly 200,000 affordable homes. That figure anchors Housing Forward 2035, the plan the ARC unveiled this week, and it will now move through a series of board reviews ahead of formal adoption in late 2026 or early 2027….
There are two defensible ways to measure whether Americans are falling behind on their credit cards, and right now they tell opposite stories. The first is the stock measure: what share of outstanding credit card balances is ninety or more days delinquent at a given moment. By that measure, distress has climbed sharply. Between the…
The gig economy changed where work happens faster than labor law changed its definition of a workplace. India’s platform economy has turned the road into a workplace. Food couriers, ride-hailing drivers and delivery workers spend their shifts moving through traffic, heat, rain, customer doorsteps and public sidewalks. The protections attached to that work have not…
The advertising giant is shrinking at the same time its technology platform is growing more capable. That combination points to a deeper change in how advertising work gets organized. WPP may eliminate as many as another 1,000 jobs before the end of the year, extending a reduction that has already removed roughly 11,000 positions since…
AI companies are filling offices and reshaping hiring, but the city’s employment recovery is still coming from healthcare and hospitality. Technology / AI A quarter of San Francisco’s job listings now ask for AI or machine-learning skills. AI companies account for roughly 40 percent of office leasing. Asking rents on vacant apartments jumped 14 percent…
AB 2222 would use refundable tax credits to preserve reporting jobs, turning newsroom payroll into a public-policy target. Structural Reality / Policy California lawmakers are weighing an unusual answer to the collapse of local journalism: pay news organizations by the head. Assembly Bill 2222 would provide a refundable state tax credit of $20,000 for each…
Spending, employment and business investment have stayed resilient. Inflation, borrowing costs and expectations are moving the other way. Society & Economy The latest U.S. economic numbers refuse to tell one story. Inflation ran at 3.7 percent in July. Consumer confidence fell to 89.4, its lowest in seven months. The average 30-year mortgage reached 6.66 percent….