Unemployment rising.
QUICK FACTS:
- U.S. unemployment rose to 4%, compared to 3.9% in December, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.
- Data from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, published in mid-January, showed 8.8 million people reported not being at work because of coronavirus-related reasons between Dec 29 and Jan 10, Reuters reports.
WHAT ECONOMIC ANALYSTS ARE SAYING:
- Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick said on Friday, “There can be no doubt that the notion of inflation at 2% is a much more elusive goal at this point.”
- Fed officials will dissect this month’s jobs report before their next policy meeting in mid-March, when they’re “expected to embark on an interest rate hiking cycle” to combat a decades-high surge in inflation, Hamrick says.
- LPL Financial analyst Barry Gilbert said the Fed is now likely to raise rates four or more times this year—compared to the three interest-rate hikes officials projected late last year.
- Market analyst Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge Media also said there is an increased risk that the privately owned Federal Reserve will continue to move aggressively in hiking interest rates—a prospect that ushered in the stock market’s worst start to the year since 2009, Forbes reports.
BACKGROUND:
- The U.S. economy has seen the highest inflation rate since the 1980s under Joe Biden, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) recently saying he believes it’s “only going to get worse.”
- “In recent months, prices on nearly everything from gas, food, and clothes to electricity, car prices, and rent, have all increased, and unfortunately it’s only going to get worse,” Paul said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Congress needs to realize that further spending at this time of rapidly rising prices is only going to continue the trend of rising prices on this nation’s already vulnerable businesses and families.”
- The consumer price index (CPI), which is a measure of inflation, rose 7% annually in December, marking the highest increase since June 1982 when the rate hit 7.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), FOX News notes.
