The shape of the US labor market is changing, job growth is slowing and new survey data released Monday shows that Americans are starting to feel increasingly unsettled about it all.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest survey on consumers’ labor market experiences and expectations showed that job, wage and benefits satisfaction all sank in July. In addition, the survey showed that fewer people were employed, a record share of people were looking for jobs, and the average expected likelihood of becoming unemployed rose to 4.4% — also the highest on record for the survey, which was started 10 years ago.
Jitters aside, the July survey also showed that Americans also felt opportunities still abound.
Job offer activity held steady from July 2023, and the average expected likelihood of receiving at least one job offer increased from last year. Additionally, the average reservation wage (the lowest wage one would accept for a new job) remained well above July 2023 — and significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels.
www.cnn.com/2024/08/19/economy/labor-market-unemployment-ny-fed-survey/index.html
Back-to-school shopping is likely to put about a third of Americans in debt, a poll said this month.
Shoppers are likely to face high prices on a variety of back-to-school items, from supplies to clothes, on top of already the high prices for necessities like groceries and housing.
In a Bankrate poll of more than 2,300 adults in July, 31 percent of shoppers said buying school supplies would mean going into debt.
This echoes a similar study by Intuit Credit Karma, which found that 31 percent of parents couldn’t afford back-to-school shopping, while 34 percent said they’d take on debt to cover the costs.
www.newsweek.com/back-school-shopping-will-put-third-americans-debt-1941323
Coming to a Cash-Strapped Company Near You: Creditor-on-Creditor Violence
As private-equity-owned companies default, lenders are resorting to measures that seem extreme
Grand alliances. Secret pacts. Betrayal. It’s all in a day’s work in the booming market for low-rated corporate debt.
U.S. companies that struggle to repay their below-investment-grade bonds and loans have increasingly squeezed concessions from lenders by pitting them against one another. The private-equity firms and wealthy individuals who own most of the companies call the deals “liability management exercises,” or LMEs. Debt investors call them “creditor-on-creditor violence.”
Companies using these tactics—or preparing to—run the gamut from telecommunications provider Altice USA to cloud-computing firm Rackspace Technology and aerospace supplier Incora. Some funds are fighting back by joining forces to pre-empt such tactics. Lenders to radio broadcaster iHeartMedia have recently organized, fund managers who have participated in the groups said. But even in such alliances, debt investors can turn on each other, they said.