Busy Past Few Days in the US Economy

Pay them more and treat them better
Also, train them

First, US job openings and quit rate hit another record:

Job openings and the number of times workers quit reached the highest levels on record in March, as a shortage of available workers continued to pressure the U.S. labor market.

The Labor Department on Tuesday reported a seasonally adjusted 11.5 million job openings in March, an increase from 11.3 million the prior month. The number of times workers quit their jobs rose to 4.5 million in the same month, slightly higher than the previous record in November of last year. Meanwhile, hiring cooled slightly from the month before to 6.7 million hires in March.

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Consumer-facing industries such as accommodation and food services, along with arts and entertainment, had the highest rate of job openings in March, according to the Labor Department. Job openings in the healthcare industry were also near record highs.

Because people are leaving what were, or have become, awful jobs to have.

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The number of job openings continues to exceed the number of unemployed people seeking work. In March, there were nearly two job openings for every unemployed person, according to the Labor Department. Openings have outpaced the level of unemployed people seeking jobs since last spring.

Also, in an attempt to put an end to increasing wages and increasing options for workers, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points. (½%)

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates Wednesday by half a percentage point and scaled back other pandemic-era economic supports, strengthening its efforts to fight the highest inflation in 40 years and vowing to keep up the pressure as Americans continue to struggle.

“Inflation is much too high,” Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell said at a Wednesday news conference. “We understand the hardship it is causing, and we are moving expeditiously to bring it back down. We have both the tools we need and the resolve that it will take to restore price stability on behalf of American families and businesses.”

The rate increase is the sharpest since 2000 and the second of seven hikes forecast for this year. Powell added that additional interest rate hikes as high as 0.5 percentage points are “on the table” in the coming months but said policymakers had not seriously discussed even sharper hikes. Major financial markets edged higher during his remarks, as investors signaled relief that the Fed wouldn’t move more aggressively.

The stock market loved this though, because they feared that this would be a 75 basis point (¾%) increase,

I expect the current housing bubble to collapse over the next few months, the Wall Street funded run-up in real estate prices is unsustainable, and if mortgage rates go up a few percent, sales will fall off a cliff.