A Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge in Texas blocked the FTC's ban on noncompetes. This will: -Hurt economic dynamism and innovation -Depress business formation and labor mobility -Hurt productivity and growth -Raise prices -Shrink workers’ wages -Restrict workers’ freedom

Back to school unfortunately means back to a lack of diversity among teachers in the classroom. Here's why that matters especially for education policy, academic outcomes, and students of color. epi.org/blog/improving…

You may have heard that public support for unions “has been increasing”—but you probably haven’t heard just how big a deal that is in the context of the last 15 years. Since the Great Recession, we’ve seen the credibility of, and approval for, just about every major institution

Top lines from JOLTS data for July (bls.gov/news.release/p…): 1. Job openings continue to normalize, falling towards pre-pandemic levels. 2. The hires rate ticks up, a promising sign after some softening in recent months. 3. Quits and layoffs changed little, each up 0.1 pps.

Report in Noticias Telemundo delves into a number of issues on farmworkers (en Español): -ACLU of New Jersey lawsuit on minimum wage & overtime -worker vulnerabilities -racist exclusion from labor laws that protect most workers -Trump and Harris positions on farm labor telemundo.com/noticias/notic…

Solid labor market report out this morning: bls.gov/news.release/p…. - Payroll employment rose 142,000, in line with recent trends - Unemployment ticked down as the prime-age employment-to-population ratio remains at record high - Temporary layoffs declined sharply

A slow down in job growth is expected as we approach full employment. By all measures, we are still in a strong labor market, but the Fed needs to lower interest rates to levels consistent with where we are in terms of inflation and trends in key labor market metrics.

This #Jobs report really highlights why we shouldn't take any single data point too seriously--instead look at the trend and put estimates in context with multiple measures. For ex: the spike in temp layoffs we saw last month was totally reversed this month!

I know it's already been a big week of BLS data with JOLTS and Jobs Day, but don't forget next Tuesday the Census will release its annual report on earnings, incomes, and poverty. Here are some of my thoughts on what to expect in the release next week: epi.org/blog/a-2023-ce…