Expect rate hikes to move quickly, Fed minutes say
Federal Reserve officials agreed at their last meeting that the central bank needed to move “expeditiously” to bring down the most rapid pace of inflation in 40 years, with most participants expecting as many as three half-a-percentage-point interest rate increases in the months ahead, minutes of the Fed's May meeting showed.
They also discussed the prospect of raising interest rates beyond the so-called neutral rate, at which they are neither supporting nor dampening the economy, to further slow economic growth as policymakers try to combat inflation.
The officials noted that inflationary pressures were evident in a broad array of goods and services, causing hardship for Americans by eroding their incomes and making it hard for businesses to plan for the future. They said that further supply chain disruptions from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and pandemic lockdowns in China also were threatening to push inflation higher.
Their discussion highlighted the urgency of the task ahead, with some officials emphasizing “that persistently high inflation heightened the risk that longer-term inflation expectations could become unanchored,” making it more difficult for the central bank to return inflation to the 2% annual average that the Fed aims for.
BofA, Apple announce more raises
Bank of America and Apple are boosting pay for thousands of U.S. employees.
BofA said last week it will increase wages for employees that earn less than $100,000 a year and adding reimbursements for a portion of electric-vehicle purchases.
Base salaries will climb as much as 7% for workers who have been with the company since 2021 or earlier, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News. The size of the raises, which start at 3% and kick in next month, will be based on how many years each employee has worked there.
Bank of America also will reimburse $4,000 to employees who buy an electric vehicle, or $2,000 for a new lease, according to a separate memo.
Apple said Wednesday it is raising salaries for U.S. workers by 10% or more as it faces a tight labor market and the spread of unionization efforts across its retail stores.
The Cupertino-based company is expanding its overall compensation budget this year, hiking minimum hourly pay for its staff to at least $22, up 10% from last year. The move follows a pay bump in February after inflation woes and complaints from some staffers about working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. companies are battling to retain employees in a tight job market, marked by a record number of open positions and historically low unemployment. Bank of America previously announced that its hourly minimum wage would increase to $22 from $21, another step toward its goal of reaching $25 an hour by 2025.
Many visit office just once a week
Nearly half of all office visits this year were once a week, a blow to bosses and civic leaders who want workers back at their desks more regularly.
In the four months before the pandemic hit, the share of once-a-week office visits was 21%, according to data from Basking. io, a workplace-occupancy analytics company. Globally, weekly visits of four to five days were about 20%, with North America and the Asia-Pacific region the highest at 26% each.
Organizations are grappling with how to bring workers into the office when COVID-19 variants continue to emerge and employees are reluctant to give up remote work.
Midweek is emerging as the popular choice to visit the office, according to the findings, with Tuesday the winner at 23% of the total office visits. Just 15% of visits came on Fridays.
And there's more bad news for returnto-office die-hards. It's not just office visits that are on the decline, but also the time spent there. Some 37% of office visits lasted less than six hours in the first four months of 2022, compared with 20% from October 2019 to February 2020. average — No. 4 highest — swung up from 3.6% to 7.7% — the biggest jump since World War II.
Inflation — and the Fed's fierce fight against it — gave this Democrat a short White House stint (1977-1980). Global tensions and economic mismanagement meshed to create 10.2% average inflation — the highest in this post-WWII history. The cost of living surged from 5.8% to 13.5% — an increase of 7.7 points, also No. 1. The 6.6% unemployment average — the third-highest rate — masked improvement with joblessness going from 7.7% to 7.2% at the end of his one term, the fourth-best performance since 1944.
The White House era of Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush (1981-1992) averaged 4.2% inflation — No. 4 of the 10. But it's best remembered for when the cost of living cooled with inflation's fall from 13.5% to 3% over 12 years. This decline of 10.5 points is unmatched since WWII. The 7.1% unemployment average during these three terms was the second-highest while going from 7.2% to 7.5%. That uptick may seem mild, yet it likely cost Bush reelection.
The Democrat's term (1993-2000) was a mix of mild price hikes and ample employment. Inflation averaged 2.6% — No. 5 lowest — going from 3% to 3.4%, the sixth-biggest increase. The 5.4% unemployment average — No. 5 — came as joblessness dropped from 7.5% to 4% — the best performance since WWII.
The Republican's economy (2001-2008) juggled the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the dot-com stock collapse and what became an overheated housing market. Inflation averaged 2.6% — No. 5 of the 10 — going from 3.4% to 3.8%. The increase of 0.4 point also ranked No. 5. The younger Bush's 5.2% unemployment average — No. 6 — didn't include much of the brewing Great Recession. Joblessness went from 4% to 5.8% after eight years — but that hike was the fourth-largest since 1944.
The days of this Democrat in the White House (2009-2016) were a recovery period from the Great Recession's damage. Inflation averaged 1.5% — the second-lowest since World War II, falling from 3.8% to 1.3%. That decline of 2.5 points was third-best. But hiring was slow to rebound from recessionary lows. The 7.5% unemployment average was the highest of the 10 eras. But its dip from 5.8% to 4.9% over eight years was the third-best performance.
The economy during the Republican's term (2017-2020) was upended by the coronavirus. Inflation averaged 2.2% — the third-lowest of the 10. The rate ended back where it began during Trump's lone term — at 1.3% and fourth-best. And though Trump's 4.6% unemployment average was second-lowest, the pandemic's business chill pushed joblessness from 4.9% to 8.1% in four years. That increase was the second-largest since World War II.