Americans applied for fewer unemployment benefits at the end of 2019, the Labor Department announced Thursday. The number dropped by 2,000 to 222,000 in the seven days up until December 28, although the four-week average ticked up by 4,750 to 233,250.
The report beat expectations that had predicted 225,000 new claims, according to Reuters. The result marks the third consecutive weekly decline.
“I think we’re definitely going to see slightly smaller growth month by month than what we saw in 2019 and that’s consistent with economists expectations’ of the macroeconomy weakening slightly,” in the labor market, Beth Akers, Manhattan Institute senior fellow, told Cheddar.
She will be keeping an eye on manufacturing trends and changes in policy regarding trade for indications about how job numbers will grow (or shrink) in 2020.
“If you’re looking to something to be concerned about, you can look at the four-week moving average, which is up from what it’s been over the course of the year,” Akers said. “But, by and large, these are really strong, positive numbers for the labor market.”
The Federal Reserve announced that it will raise its interest for the first time in more than three years to fight record inflation. Cheddar News spoke with Mark Hamrick, Senior Economic Analyst at Bankrate how the move will impact the wallets of everyday Americans.
Paul T. Murray, president at PTM Wealth Management, joined Cheddar News to break down the implications of the Starbucks CEO shakeup, as the coffee company faces issues of unionization and pandemic-related closures. "Well, shareholders love Howard Schultz returning. I mean he's an iconic CEO, a visionary, a guy who made coffee as American as apple pie and shareholders are gonna continue to love that," Murray continued. "But he's got an uphill battle, frankly, because, this unionization push has now spread to 26 states, 100 stores, and the COVID pandemic is going to continue to be a headwind, especially in China where Johnson really made a lot of headway."
Social audio app Clubhouse reached $1 billion valuation milestone this January, and Fadia Kader, head of strategic media partnerships at Clubhouse, joined Cheddar News to talk about what its been doing to keep the drive going. "We are the category first leaders. We are 100 percent focused on social audio. It's not just a feature that we've just like bottled up and put on there. We are a medium that is 100 percent focused on community and social audio," she said.
European antitrust regulators gave Amazon approval for its MGM acquisition deal. Amazon expects MGM's collection of content will help it compete in the increasingly crowded world of streaming services.
Online retailer Boxed reported a significant growth in its latest earnings, and CEO Chieh Huang joined Cheddar News to talk about its Q4 report, what's upcoming for the company, and how the business avoided the mass labor shortages dubbed the great resignation. "We've been really lucky when it comes to what we're known about as a company. Half of what comes up if you search us on the internet is how we treat our frontline team even before, I guess, it was the kind of soup du jour to do so," he said. "We treat them extraordinarily well."
