Hogan has made $52,000 from paid speeches since announcing his campaign for US Senate.
William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images
Larry Hogan has made $157,000 from paid speeches since the end of his term as Maryland governor.
Some of that money came after he announced his Senate campaign in February.
His campaign says he doesn't plan to give any more paid speeches while he runs for Senate.
Larry Hogan has made $157,000 from paid speeches since the end of his term as Governor of Maryland, according to financial disclosure documents filed on Sunday.
One of those speeches — a $28,000 appearance alongside former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe at the Self Storage Association's National Spring Conference — came after he launched his GOP Senate campaign on February 9.
"Governor Hogan was committed to doing a bipartisan event with his friend Terry McAuliffe that brings hundreds of visitors to Maryland, and felt it important to keep that commitment," Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci told Business Insider.
Hogan was also paid $24,000 for a speech he gave to a gathering of Canadian CEOs on January 23, though he didn't receive the payment until February 14, after his campaign launch.
Ricci told Business Insider on Monday that Hogan does not plan to give any more paid speeches while campaigning for Maryland's US Senate seat.
"It's not uncommon to cash in on speeches between leaving government and running for a higher office," said Jordan Libowitz, communication director for Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW). "It is uncommon to do it as a candidate."
Indeed, plenty of figures in both parties have given — and faced scrutiny — for paid speeches in the past, the most famous case being Hillary Clinton. But politicians typically stop giving those speeches after they become active candidates in order to avoid the appearance of being influenced by special interests.
Business Insider has previously reported on members of both parties, including GOP Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, enriching themselves via the so-called "revolving door" between the public and private sectors.
Here are the six speech payments Hogan has received in the last two years:
July 10, 2023 – $34,000 from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association
July 10, 2023 – $37,000 from Jobs for the Future,
September 25, 2023 – $24,000 from the National Multifamily Housing Council
November 30, 2023 – $10,000 from LG Ad Solutions
February 14, 2024 – $24,000 from the Business Council of Canada
March 13, 2024 – $28,000 from the Self-Storage Association
Hogan, a moderate Republican who served as Governor of Maryland from 2015 to 2023, is already quite wealthy. According to the disclosure filed Sunday, he's worth somewhere between $12.3 million and $34 million, much of which comes from real estate holdings across Maryland.
As governor, his official salary ranged between $165,000 and $180,000, though he continued to make millions from his real estate holdings while in office.
Hogan's surprise entry into the Senate race, which came after years of dismissing the idea of serving in the upper chamber, was a win for Senate Republicans.
Though he faces an uphill climb in the deep-blue state of Maryland, Hogan was a popular governor, and Democrats will have to spend more resources to defend the state's Senate seat in a year where they already face a tough fight to retain control of the upper chamber.
Tesla's SVP of powertrain and energy engineering reportedly stepped down.
John Keeble/Getty Images
Drew Baglino, Tesla's SVP of powertrain and electrical engineering, resigned from Tesla on Sunday.
Baglino's departure came shortly before Tesla laid off 10% of its workforce.
The executive had worked at Tesla for over 18 years.
Drew Baglino, Tesla's senior vice president of powertrain and electrical engineering, announced he'd left the company, becoming the latest major executive to depart Elon Musk's EV giant after the CFO stepped down in August last year. The move came as Tesla announced sweeping job cuts.
"I made the difficult decision to move on from Tesla after 18 years yesterday," Baglino wrote on X on Monday. "I am so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla over the years. I loved tackling nearly every problem we solved as a team and feel gratified to have contributed to the mission of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, a mission that I am quite passionate about."
I made the difficult decision to move on from Tesla after 18 years yesterday. I am so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla over the years.
I loved tackling nearly 🤣 every problem we solved as a team and feel gratified…
Tesla's vice president of public policy and business development, Rohan Patel, also said on Monday he'd left. Patel told TechCrunch that he departed due to "[b]ig overall changes" at Tesla.
Baglino and Patel did not immediately respond to a request from Business Insider for comment, nor did a spokesperson from Tesla. However, CEO Musk responded to X posts from both execs thanking them for everything they'd done.
Baglino joined the company in 2006 — only two years after Tesla CEO Elon Musk first began investing in the automaker — and started out as an electrical engineer working on the company's very first car, the Roadster.
By the time he left, he had become one of only four execs named as "leadership" on Tesla's investor relations page, alongside Musk himself, CFO Vaibhav Taneja, and Tom Zhu, senior vice-president of automotive. Baglino was in charge of the technology behind the company's energy products, including batteries and motors for the cars.
EV blog Electrek noted on Monday morning that Baglino had already lost his Tesla company badge — a red symbol next to his name — on X shortly before he announced his departure on the platform. X is also owned by Musk.
Baglino appears to have resigned less than 24 hours before Tesla announced a round of job cuts impacting about 10% of its workforce. Multiple Tesla employees told Business Insider there had been concerns of impending layoffs going into the weekend as rumors spread throughout the company that some managers had been told to provide upper management with a list of names.
Earlier this month, Tesla delivery numbers appeared to show a slow in EV demand. The company's stock is down about 33% year-to-date.
Tesla saw another key executive depart last year. CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, who was rumored to be under consideration for the role of successor to Musk, left the company in August after 13 years.
Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com
But Corradi said people need to change too in order to cut the rat population down.
One way people can help is to stop scattering food on the ground for pigeons to eat. Leftover crumbs end up becoming impromptu meals for nearby rats, Corradi told New York Magazine.
Instead, bird lovers in the big city should place pieces of bread on the ground and make sure the birds eat it all up.
Another method is the city's new pilot program requiring trash to be stored in containers, not thrown out in bags on the street where rats can gnaw their way inside and feast.
"We're a big part of the problem when it comes to sustaining rat populations in the city," Corradi told the magazine.
Those suggestions are in line with what rat researchers previously told Business Insider.
Michael Parsons, an urban-rat expert, said after Corradi's appointment last year that she'll need to focus on changing human behavior to tackle the root of the rat problem.
Parsons suggested picking up trash earlier in the day when rats aren't as active and sticking to data-proven techniques.
"Understand that rat control begins by changing people's habits, hygiene, and expectations," he told BI.
Now restaurant reservations service OpenTable has decided that the benefits of anonymous posting don't outweigh the costs.
The company told Business Insider it will no longer support posting anonymous reviews, and will require diners' comments to include their first name and their selected OpenTable profile image.
OpenTable also reversed an earlier plan, first reported by tech news site Bleeping Computer last week, that would have de-anonymized past reviews posted to the platform.
"Following feedback from our diner community, and in line with our continued commitment to trusted reviews, we are making refinements to our restaurant reviews program," the company said in a statement on Sunday. "To increase transparency, on a go-forward basis only, we will no longer be supporting anonymous restaurant reviews. This change will go into effect later this year."
The reported policy change comes a month after after Wired found that careers site Glassdoor had begun requiring users to provide their real names for account verification, though they still have the option of posting anonymous content to the company's services.
"We use your real name and email address for verification purposes only, to make sure everyone is who they say they are. After that, your privacy takes priority," Glassdoor says in an FAQ page.
One Reddit user was quick to dismiss concerns about OpenTable's change, saying, "This is how you get King Tuttle's, Emperor Nero's, and Kim Jongummm on the reservation list. Customers will outsmart this in no time."
UPDATE: April 15, 2024 — This story was updated to reflect OpenTable's adjustment after it received feedback on the policy reported last week regarding previously anonymous reviews.
New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana, ranked No. 1 among metropolitan statistical areas for its negative net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people.
John Coletti/Getty Images
Many metros had more people move out than in between July 2022 and June 2023.
New Orleans ranked No. 1 for its negative net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people.
Six of the top 14 metro areas in this ranking were in California.
California cities aren't appealing to everyone. Numerous places in the Golden State were among the top14 metros where more people moved out than moved in, adjusted by population.
Business Insider looked at negative net domestic migration estimates for US metropolitan statistical areas for the period of July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. Negative net domestic migration means they had more people fleeing these metropolitan statistical areas for another US location than people in the US moving in. We adjusted those estimates by each metro's population as of July 1, 2022, to get migration rates per 1,000 residents.
Before adjusting for population size, negative net domestic migration stood out the most in the greater New York City metro area — with a value of -238,494. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California, came next, with a value of -154,634, and then Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Illinois-Indiana, with a value of -71,310.
Los Angeles continued to be notable when adjusting metroareas by their population size. Six of the 14 metros that had the biggest negative net domestic migration rates per 1,000 people were California metros. That includes San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont — as well as Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim.
New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana, stood outthe most though for its negative net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people among metros, with a value of -17.5.
Below are the top cities people are fleeing based on net domestic migration rates per 1,000 people.
14. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, California
San Francisco.
Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -11.83
Net domestic migration: -54,160
13. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California
Los Angeles.
ANDREY DENISYUK/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -12.01
Net domestic migration: -154,634
12. Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York.
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -12.11
Net domestic migration: -1,263
11. New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey
New York City.
Westend61/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -12.19
Net domestic migration: -238,494
10. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California
Santa Cruz, California.
4kodiak/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -13.08
Net domestic migration: -3,455
9. Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Laxmikant Maitri/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -13.46
Net domestic migration: -3,178
8. Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California.
Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.07
Net domestic migration: -6,246
7. Salinas, California
Salinas, California.
MattGush/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.30
Net domestic migration: -6,190
6. Fairbanks-College, Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska.
Jacob Boomsma/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.61
Net domestic migration: -1,391
5. Minot, North Dakota
Minot, North Dakota.
Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.72
Net domestic migration: -1,122
4. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
San Jose, California.
Jacob Boomsma/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.88
Net domestic migration: -28,951
3. Watertown-Fort Drum, New York
Watertown, New York.
Wangkun Jia/Shutterstock
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -15.35
Net domestic migration: -1,772
2. Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan, Kansas.
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -16.00
Net domestic migration: -2,134
1. New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana
New Orleans.
John Coletti/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -17.49
But according to Raymond James chief investment officer Larry Adam, inflation is set to reverse lower and the Fed is going to cut interest rates at least three times this year.
These are the four reasons why Adam is confident that the recent uptick in inflation is not the start of a new trend like it was in the 1970's.
1. Economic growth should begin to temper
While the economy should continue to avert a recession, it is unlikely to grow at such a strong rate like it did over the past two years, according to Adam.
Adam pointed to small business optimism falling to its lowest level since 2012. On top of that, the percentage of businesses reporting weak sales has jumped to its highest level in almost three years.
Additionally, the recent rebound in inflation during the first three months of 2024 has also led to a rebound in interest rates, with mortgage rates back above 7% and credit card interest rates hovering near record levels. Those high interest rates should dampen spending.
"This, plus a softening labor market, dwindling savings, high credit card balances and rising delinquencies suggest the momentum in consumer spending should start to slow, but not collapse. This should lead GDP to falling below 1% in the next two quarters," Adam said.
If the economy slows, then so should inflation, and it should give the Fed more confidence to begin cutting interest rates.
2. Labor conditions will slowly ease
While monthly jobs reports have been solid, "there are cracks forming that point to weaker labor conditions ahead," Adam said.
Employment subsectors in the ISM Manufacturing and ISM Services indices have contracted recently, and small businesses have pulled back their hiring plans in recent months.
"In the latest NFIB survey, small business hiring plans fell to the weakest level since May 2020," Adam said, adding that temporary help services have been trending lower for over a year.
"While significant job losses are unlikely, these indicators suggest the labor market is likely to soften, keeping a lid on wages and dampening consumption," Adam said.
3. Leading indicators show falling prices
Forward-looking metrics that measure inflation suggest that the overall downward trend remains intact, according to Adam.
The strategist highlighted that the prices paid subsector of the ISM Services Index dropped to its lowest level since March 2020, suggesting that services prices should begin to fall. Meanwhile, goods prices should stay depressed as supply chains continue to normalize.
"This, combined with additional Amazon 'selling events' and slowing demand for motor vehicles point to further discounting in the goods space and leaves us confident that a material acceleration is unlikely," Adam said.
4. Real-time inflation metrics show a sharp decline
While official government metrics show stubbornly high rent and used vehicle prices, real-time measures show considerably lower prices. The government metrics should eventually catch-up to the real-time metrics of prices, suggesting further disinflation ahead.
"If we replaced these components in the CPI with the real-time metrics, CPI would be less than 2% on a YoY basis! The point is: there should be plenty of disinflation in the pipeline as CPI converges with some of these more real-time metrics," Adam said.
Donald Trump enters jury selection at first criminal trial.
ANGELA WEISS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump's criminal trial may prevent him from attending son Barron's high school graduation.
The historic trial began with jury selection in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday.
The judge has not yet decided on Trump's request to skip trial for the graduation event.
Donald Trump may have to miss out on his son Barron's high school graduation ceremony next month due to the timing of the former president's first historic criminal trial.
Trump's hush-money trial kicked off with jury selection on Monday in a Manhattan courtroom.
As the court prepared for the first day of voir dire, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said he received requests from Trump's attorneys for the former president to skip out on the trial on May 17 so that he could attend Barron Trump's high school graduation in Florida.
Merchan said that he would not yet rule on Trump's request to miss the trial that day.
"It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial," Merchan explained.
Jury selection is expected to last up to two weeks.
Spring weather doesn't just call for a wardrobe change, switching to a fresh, light fragrance is another way to update your style.
Iryna Veklich/Getty Images
Consumers are increasing their spending in the luxury perfume category.
Scents are perceived differently in warm weather, so spring is a great time to try something new.
Perfumers recommend consumers switch to fragrances with woody and green notes for warmer months.
While it's natural for warmer weather to inspire a wardrobe change, a fragrance update may also be in order this spring.
As the mercury rises, colognes and perfumes may react differently to humidity and temperature fluctuations impacting the way a scent is perceived by your olfactory receptors (cells inside the nose that sense smells).
For those ready for a change, you're not alone. Fragrance sales have been on the rise in recent years, and a report from McKinsey & Company projects that consumers will continue to spend in the fragrance category, trading up for more luxury products in the coming years.
If you're looking to get in on the lighter scents that will pop the most this spring, here are the ingredients and scent profiles two professional perfumers told Business Insider shoppers should consider.
Aquatic scents mimic days spent at the beach
Salt, sand, and other scents that are reminiscent of a day spent at the beach can be fresh fragrance options for spring.
Image Source/Getty Images
Reminiscent of the seaside, aquatic scents can include aromas like sea salt or sandalwood.
These crisp scents are often associated with freshness, making them a natural choice for spring, according to Clement Gavarry, principal perfumer of Firmenich who also innovates scents for Inter Parfums, Inc.
"Aquatic fragrances evoke a sense of freshness and cleanliness," the perfumer told BI. These elements make them ideal for warm weather and casual wear, he said.
Solar notes evoke feelings of warm spring afternoons
Solar fragrances refer to those that suggest a warm and radiant feel and include scents like almond and bergamot. These scents often borrow from other scent families, such as floral and aquatic.
"Solar notes, evoking spring afternoons, rather than sizzling hot summer nights on the beach, will continue their journey into our hearts," according to Rodrigo Flores-Roux, vice president of perfumery at Givaudan, a Swiss-based company that's developed fragrances for luxury brands including Dolce&Gabbana and Tom Ford.
Woody fragrances can be a sophisticated, unisex choice
According to Gavarry, these grounding scents feature notes of various woods and plants, including cedar, sandalwood, vetiver, or patchouli.
And although there are plenty in the market to choose from, he teased that consumers can expect to see many inventive pairings of these scents in the near future.
Woody fragrances are also ideal for those looking for a unisex option that doesn't skew too masculine or feminine.
Silent florals continue to be popular
Many familiar scents from the garden, including lilac, are popular in spring fragrances.
Christophe Lehenaff/Getty Images
Silent florals are flowers that have a scent in nature that cannot be extracted to use in products, Gavarry said. Therefore, in order to use the note in fragrances, the scent must be chemically created.
Though synthetic, these scents will often make wearers feel as if they're in a lush garden. Examples of silent florals include lily of the valley, gardenia, wisteria, lilac, daffodil, and hyacinth.
Green, crisp notes exude all things spring
"Spring always starts with green buds and saplings, before the blossoming of flowers," Flores-Roux told BI.
Green, crisp notes like cucumber, arugula, fresh-cut grass, and ivy elicit feelings of spring, making them a great addition to your fragrance collection.
Flores-Roux said he expects green scents will see a boost in popularity before summer hits.
Citrus and fruity scents have uplifting and refreshing qualities
Fresh culinary scents including citrus and other fruits are popular notes for spring fragrances.
Oscar Wong/Getty Images
"Citrus scents are always popular for spring, as they bring a refreshing and uplifting feel," Gavarry said.
These fragrances often contain notes of lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit, or bergamot. And although they were once relegated to the background notes of many scents, the products of today are letting citrus take center stage.
These scents won't be used in conventional ways, such as the fruit sprays and scents you may remember from your teenage years. Instead, elevated and elegant combinationswill take them to a different level, Gavarry said.
Indulgent scents, such as vanilla, are on the rise
Today's consumers are being drawn to scents that delight and allow you to escape, according to Gavarry.
With that, there has been a growing interest in scents that are more indulgent and pleasurable, and this will likely continue through spring.
Think vanilla, boozy, and gourmand notes — all of which can add a sense of addiction to your fragrance, the perfumer said.
Donald Trump is in court for his first criminal trial.
He stepped into Manhattan criminal court Monday morning, where jury selection will soon begin.
The hush-money case marks first-ever criminal trial against a former US president.
At 9:31 AM, Donald Trump crossed the threshold.
With hunched shoulders but his chin up, he stepped into a courtroom on the 15th floor of the grimy, hot, and poorly lit New York County criminal court in downtown Manhattan.
It is the location of the first-ever criminal trial of a former US president.
Trump walked into the courtroom behind Todd Blanche, his lead lawyer in the case.
He paused for a split second, licked his lips, then began walking up the courtroom's center aisle toward his seat at the front of the courtroom.
Moments after he sat down, photographers took his picture sitting at the defense table, flanked by his attorneys.
Monday marks the beginning of jury selection, presided over by trial judge Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, which is expected to last up to two weeks.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has accused Trump of 34 counts of falsifying business records, saying he lied on documents to disguise payments to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress. The aim of those payments — according to prosecutors, Daniels, and others involved in the plan — was to deceive the voting public by making her stay silent about an affair she says she had with him ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
In the hallway before walking into the courtroom, Trump criticized the case, telling journalists it was a "political persecution."
"This is an assault on America," he said. "Nothing like this has ever happened before, there's never been anything like it."
"I'm very proud to be here," he added later.
The hush-money case is the first of Trump's four criminal cases to go to trial before the 2024 election, where Trump is the presumed Republican nominee against President Joe Biden.
Merchan has previously denied about a dozen different attempts from Trump's lawyers to delay the case. In a Friday decision, Merchan dismissed one of his motions to delay the case because of "pretrial publicity," calling it "untenable."
"Defendant appears to take the position that his situation and this case are unique and that the pre-trial publicity will never subside," Merchan wrote. "However, this view does not align with reality."
Trump has also fought against Merchan's gag order, which forbids him from talking about trial jurors, witnesses, staff prosecutors, and family members of Merchan and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.
On Truth Social, Trump complained once again Monday morning about the gag order, calling the trial "rigged." He also posted a screenshot of a social media post that falsely claimed Orthodox Jews could not serve on the jury. The trial overlaps with Passover, and Merchan previously said he would consider the needs of jurors in determining the trial schedule.
"When I walk into that courtroom, I know I will have the love of 200 million Americans behind me, and I will be FIGHTING for the FREEDOM of 325 MILLION AMERICANS!" Trump posted on Truth Social.
Over the past year, Trump has been a defendant in three different civil trials.
Jury selection was much swifter in those cases, which was held in federal court. For Carroll's second trial, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan selected the nine-person jury in less than three hours.
The other civil trial was for a sprawling lawsuit from the New York attorney general's office against the Trump Organization. In that case, a judge — in a bench trial with no jury — ordered him and his codefendants to pay nearly half-a-billion dollars in penalties.
Trump has been charged in three other criminal cases, none of which have firm trial dates yet. Two were brought by Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, over his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and for him hoarding government documents in Mar-a-Lago after the presidency.
The other was brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, for pressuring Georgia election officials to overturn Biden's 2020 electoral victory in the state.
Well, the labor market is looking more like the healthy but boring era of 2018 or 2019, Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told Business Insider. That's opposed to the wild swings we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bunker said we're seeing less drama in jobs data.
"That's a good thing in my view," Bunker said, given "an incredibly dramatic" few years.
Job growth is still doing great though; the US just added 303,000 jobs in March, although that's a slower pace than during the height of the pandemic recovery.
Wage growth has slowed. The share of Americans working or looking for work has held mostly steady since spring 2023. Job openings have also dropped — and have been at a rate of 5.3% for three straight months. The number of layoffs and discharges have been low.
And that more boring but steady labor market could be great news for workers and job seekers. Julia Pollak, ZipRecruiter's chief economist, told Business Insider the minimal changes are great amid a labor market that's resilient, stable, and robust.
"Everything is holding on better than most people had predicted," Pollak said.
Pollak pointed to employment strength in construction and manufacturing. Construction employment for March was 7.8% higher than the pre-pandemic level in February 2020. Manufacturing employment was 1.4% higher, and its employment was unchanged from this past February to this past March.
The long-feared recession following the wild swings of the early pandemic years has yet to emerge and may not even be on the horizon. "I think stability at a time of high interest rates and restrictive monetary policy expected to lead to losses and declines is something to be celebrated," Pollak said. "And, most of the small changes lately have been in the right direction."
The US could be in a Goldilocks job market. The four charts below show what that looks like.
Job quitting
People looking for a newjob have bargaining power, but workers are more likely to stick around their current gigs.
"Job seekers still have some bargaining power but are less willing to demonstrate that power by leaving their jobs," Bunker said. "With fewer new job opportunities and less of a pay bump for switching roles, more employees are staying put. However, layoff rates are still low, so workers have robust job security compared to pre-pandemic levels."
Newly released data for February showed the US quits rate had been 2.2% for four straight months. This rate has cooled down from 3.0% in April 2022. There were 3.5 million quits in February, which the BLS news release noted this metric "was little changed."
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Wage growth
Average hourly earnings increased 4.1% from March 2023 to this past March, lower than the year-over-year increase of around 6% in March 2022.
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Despite that slowdown, wages have recently been growing faster than prices, meaning workers have more buying power.
"That means real money in the pockets of working families," Julie Su, acting secretary of labor, told Business Insider. "It's exactly what we'd want to see."
Inflation in March, as measured by the year-over-year percent change in the Consumer Price Index, ticked up a little last month, but remains less of a problem than last year. It climbed 3.5% from March 2023 to March 2024, compared to a 3.2% increase from February 2023 to February 2024.
Given moderating wage growth, the Fed could be more inclined to lower interest rates later this year. Pollak said the cooler wage growth is "good news for a Fed that's still battling inflation."
Job switchers are seeing higher wage growth than people staying, according to the 12-month moving average of median wage growth from the Atlanta Fed's Wage Growth Tracker. Wage growth has slowed, though, for bothjob switchers and stayers.
"Nominal wage growth may have slowed, but real wage growth — which is what really matters for workers' purchasing power — remains positive and high," Pollak told BI. "Job switchers and current workers are still experiencing solid real wage growth and have clearly retained much of the leverage gained during the pandemic. They are getting recruited, negotiating their job offers, and are receiving counteroffers from old employer's intent on retaining them at historically high rates."
Unemployment insurance claims
Initial claims for unemployment insurance can be a helpful layoff metric, spiking when lots of people lose their jobs. Right now, the boringly low rate of those initial applications for benefits suggests that any kind of large-scale layoffs still have yet to emerge.
Initial claims decreased from the week ending March 30 to the week ending April 6. In general, initial claims have been low so far this year compared to the high level of weekly claims during the pandemic.
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"Although there is plenty of speculation that employment has slowed down, recent numbers, including job openings as well as initial jobless claims, continue to indicate that the US labor market has remained stable," Eugenio Alemán, Raymond James' chief economist, said in a note earlier this month.
Unemployment
Back in January 2021 the unemployment rate was 6.4% after spiking into the double digits during the pandemic shutdowns in spring 2020. It has cooled down to 3.8% this past March, just above the historically low rates seen through most of the last two years.
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Additionally, the number of people who went from being employed to unemployed has not seen too dramatic of a change; this number was around 1.5 million for each of the past few months.
So what will happen to the Goldilocks job market?
"It would be nice to live in a world where we have low unemployment and there's steady, consistent gains in wage growth and more people coming into the labor market," Bunker said. "So hopefully, fingers crossed, dramatic days are behind us and we can see some strong gains for workers, for job seekers. But, not in the way that feels discombobulated."
While openings, wage growth, and the hires rate have cooled, the overall labor market can be described as more Goldilocks-like, or not too hot and not too cold.
"It's a labor market that has strength, and there's a path ahead of it where it can continue to grow in a sustainable manner," Bunker said.