Jobs report blows past expectations, showing hiring surge
(NEW YORK) — U.S. hiring surged in September, blowing past economist expectations and rebuking concern about weakness in the labor market. The fresh report marks one of the last major pieces of economic data before the presidential election.
Employers hired 254,000 workers last month, far exceeding economist expectations of 150,000 jobs added, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%.
Weaker-than-expected jobs data in both July and August has stoked worry among some economists about the nation’s economic outlook.
Despite an overall slowdown this year, the job market has proven resilient. Hiring has continued at a solid pace; meanwhile, the unemployment rate has climbed but remains near a 50-year low.
“The labor market is still healthy, but we have clearly seen a slowdown,” Roger Aliaga-Diaz, chief Americas economist at investment firm Vanguard, told ABC News in a statement before the new data was released. “Now we are approaching an inflection point.”
The new data arrived two weeks after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a half of a percentage point. The landmark decision dialed back a years-long fight against inflation and offered relief for borrowers saddled with high costs.
Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of about 9% in 2022, though it remains slightly higher than the Fed’s target of 2%.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C. last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell described the rate decision as a shift in approach as the Fed focuses more on ensuring robust employment and less on lowering inflation.
“This recalibration of our policy stance will help maintain the strength of the economy and the labor market, and enable further progress on inflation,” Powell said.
In theory, lower interest rates help stimulate the economy and boost employment. However, the Fed’s interest rate decisions typically take several months before they influence economic activity. In any case, the soon-to-be released report tracks hiring for September, meaning the majority of the period reflected in the data took place before the rate cut.
Still, the jobs report on Friday held significant implications for further rate decisions over the coming months. The Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, a policymaking body at the Fed, has forecast additional interest rate cuts.
By the end of 2024, interest rates will fall another half of a percentage point from their current level of between 4.75% and 5%, according to FOMC projections. Interest rates will drop another percentage point over the course of 2025, the projections further indicated.
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Helene flooded properties and devastated buildings in recent days as it tore across a vast stretch from Florida to Tennessee.
Over the coming days and weeks, households will start to rebuild — and the costs will be enormous. Some homeowners will struggle to afford it.
The devastation arrives after years of skyrocketing prices for home and flood insurance that have left some households without coverage and others choosing low-cost plans with weaker policies, experts told ABC News. The increase owes in part to a surge in costs for building materials as well as the risk of more frequent or intense storms posed by climate change, they said.
Homeowners at properties damaged by Helene are likely to see their insurance costs rise even further, imposing financial strain for years to come, the experts added.
“There’s no question that the burden on households’ budgets has increased in recent years,” Benjamin Keys, a professor of real estate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, told ABC News. “It has gotten substantially more expensive to live in harm’s way.”
Helene, which made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday night as a Category 4 hurricane, was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the Big Bend on record.
More than 100 people have been killed by Helene.
Helene dumped more than 30 inches of rain on North Carolina, producing the biggest local flooding in recorded history. The path of the storm’s devastation has spanned more than 600 miles.
Homeowners are set to draw on insurance policies that have become much more expensive in recent years.
In 2023, the nationwide average premium for owner-occupied homeowners insurance climbed about 11%, rising three times more than the overall inflation rate, S&P Global found in January.
Beginning a few years earlier, insurance prices soared even higher for homeowners in the region impacted by Helene. In Florida, the average home insurance price jumped a staggering 43% from January 2018 to December 2023, S&P Global said. Over that same period, the average insurance price for homeowners increased about 36% in North Carolina.
Rising prices leave customers less likely to purchase strong plans with ample benefits in the event of a disaster, Shan Ge, a professor at New York University who studies insurance and climate change, told ABC News.
“With the costs going up, people are getting less insurance and that’s going to be a problem when a disaster like this hits,” Ge said. “The recovery will be slower and the financial effects will be bigger.”
Homeowners insurance sometimes includes separate hurricane insurance, which typically involves an additional deductible paid by the consumer for damage incurred by a hurricane.
Neither homeowners insurance nor hurricane insurance covers flood damage, however. Instead, consumers must purchase flood insurance, but a far lower share of homeowners enrolls in flood coverage than home insurance.
The damage caused by Helene could expose the difficulties caused by that relatively low enrollment rate in flood insurance, Jeff Waters, an analyst at Moody’s Analytics subsidiary RMS, told ABC News.
“With an event like Helene where we are seeing all of the water, there’s likely to be more uninsured losses happening due to water because you don’t have as much take up there as you would on the hurricane policy side of things,” Waters said.
The price of flood insurance has also increased in recent years, and it’s expected to rise at a faster rate for some households going forward as the National Flood Insurance Program puts in place what it has called “Risk Rating 2.0.”
The new approach will set the price of flood insurance based on a calculation of each home’s risk of flooding, altering a previous policy that examined whether a home belonged to a general at-risk area.
Some homes damaged by Helene will face a price crunch as they weather an increase in flood insurance costs, alongside the anticipated increase in homeowners insurance that typically follows a hurricane, some experts said.
“It’s pretty clear in the aftermath of these disasters that homeowners insurance premiums rise a lot,” Ishita Sen, a professor of finance at Harvard Business School who studies home insurance rates, told ABC News.
The prospect of higher insurance costs could prompt difficult choices for homeowners and their communities, said Keys.
“This higher cost of living in disaster-prone areas is hitting households’ pocket books in ways that we haven’t seen,” Keys said. “Eventually it’ll induce substantial chances in these communities, whether that’s deciding where to live or how to build.”
(NEW YORK) — It’s a monster mash at McDonald’s, with the new limited-edition Happy Meal Boo Buckets making their return to the Golden Arches.
On Oct. 15, the iconic plastic buckets, which make for perfect trick-or-treating vessels, will return to participating McDonald’s restaurants nationwide while supplies last.
The nostalgic pails have a fresh look this year, with new monster designs in four colors: white, orange, green and, for the first time, blue.
McDonald’s lovers also can give their Boo Bucket a custom look with themed stickers like ears, wings and more for a more monstrous vibe.
(WASHINGTON) — On the road to the 2024 presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump’s views on electric vehicles (EVs) have offered two different visions of America’s automotive future.
Harris has been vocally supportive of the administration’s push to expand access and manufacturing of EVs in the U.S., while Trump has pledged to undo those policies.
Earlier this week, however, Trump appeared to soften his staunch anti-EV views when he spoke to Tesla CEO Elon Musk on X.
“You do make a great product,” Trump said to Musk, referring to Tesla vehicles. “That doesn’t mean everybody should have an electric car, but these are minor details … your product is incredible.”
Before his conversation with Musk, the former president had maintained that electric vehicle production and sustainable energy sources are bad for the economy. He has vowed on “day one” to repeal the Biden-Harris administration’s sustainable energy policies in favor of domestic oil production.
“I will end the electric-vehicle mandate on day one, thereby saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration,” Trump told the audience at the Republican National Convention in July.
Biden-Harris pro-EV policies
While there is no federal electric vehicle mandate, the Biden-Harris administration has issued regulations calling on automakers to reduce emissions produced by their fleets, including by producing more electric and hybrid vehicles.
The administration’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act – which Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass in Congress – marks the largest climate investment in United States history.
The legislation aims to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 and channels $370 billion into wind, solar, battery and electric vehicle production over the next 10 years.
Through the Inflation Reduction Act, candidate Harris has advocated for substantial investments in domestic electric vehicle car manufacturing, including funding for charging stations, and offering consumer incentives to buy EVs.
In May, Harris traveled to Detroit, Michigan, where she announced $100 million for small- and medium-sized auto manufacturers to upgrade their facilities for EV production.
“This investment will help to keep our auto supply chains here in America,” Harris said then, “which strengthens America’s economy overall and will keep those jobs here in Detroit.”
If elected, Harris is expected to continue advocating for eco-friendly fuel and emissions standards, increase funding for research and development for EV technology, and focus on leveraging EV industry growth to create more jobs.
An ABC News request to the Harris campaign for comment about their EV plans was not immediately returned.
EV sales impact on economy, climate
More Americans are starting to embrace EVs. Sales of electric cars and trucks last year totaled 1.4 million in 2023, up from 1 million in 2022, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced in January.
“The progress that’s been made is phenomenal,” Albert Gore III, executive director of the nonprofit coalition Zero Emission Transportation Association, told ABC News. “The United States has been a leader in electric vehicle manufacturing and also has really been a leader in a lot of good policymaking with regard to investment in every part of the EV and battery supply chain.”
Gore also noted that electric vehicles can have a significant impact on the economy, saying, “There’s a huge amount of opportunity.”
The industrial Midwest, Southwest and Southeast already have seen investment and job opportunities in the production of minerals and battery components for EVs. Georgia, Nevada, Texas, Ohio and Kansas have grown as domestic hubs for battery manufacturing, while Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Arizona have risen as leaders in EV manufacturing.
“So a lot of really exciting economic opportunity in these places, and oftentimes it’s multiple parts of the supply chain,” Gore added.
Last month, the Biden administration awarded nearly $2 billion in grants to General Motors, Stellantis and other automakers to expand electric vehicle manufacturing in eight states, including key election swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
“It’s really important that we create a transportation system where our cars are made by union workers with good jobs, which we’re starting to do courtesy of the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act,” Craig Segall, former deputy executive officer of the California Air Resources Board and current vice president of Evergreen Action, a nonprofit climate change advocacy group, told ABC News.
“We must stabilize the climate and America should lead that effort,” Segall added.
Segall believes a Harris-Walz White House promises a continuation of the Biden administration’s push for EV manufacturing, and a chance to further those goals.
“When I think about what we could have at the end of her first term, I think we’re talking about much clearer skies and much healthier communities,” Segall said.
Because they have zero emissions, electric vehicles typically have a smaller carbon footprint than gasoline cars, even when accounting for the electricity used for charging, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Obstacles to EV sales in the U.S.
Despite the push by carmakers and government officials, the EV market in the U.S. is still small compared to sales of gas-powered vehicles. Of the roughly 286 million cars on the road in 2023, just 9.3% were electric vehicles, according to Experian Automotive’s Market Trends report.
“The EV market is currently going through a bit of a rough patch,” Jessica Caldwell, head of insights at Edmunds, told ABC News.
Caldwell explained that consumers’ hesitancy to buy electric vehicles largely surrounds the charging infrastructure, range, prices, and battery longevity.
“In order for its buyer base to evolve from early adopters to mainstream consumers, EVs will likely rely on continued government support to hit volume sales targets across all brands,” Caldwell said. “Even with the enthusiastic backing of a fresh presidential administration, enacting such a dramatic shift in the vehicle market is a massive undertaking and the politically charged rhetoric surrounding EVs will likely place extra pressure on any new policy decisions.”
In order to combat consumer hesitancy, electric vehicles need to be offered at every price range, according to Alan Jenn, an assistant professor at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.
“In order to see EVs get even more mainstream than they are now, we want to see a larger release of vehicles in segments that are more affordable,” Jenn told ABC News.
The average transaction price for electric cars in June 2024 was $56,371 versus gas-powered vehicles at $48,644, according to Kelley Blue Book.
Segall believes a Harris presidency could bring federal investments and further tax credits to lower the costs of EVs.
Currently, the government offers tax credits up to $7,500 for eligible new electric vehicles and up to $4,000 for eligible used electric vehicles, according to the Department of Energy.
“They’re really well placed to stop paying for gas forever right now, and that’s only going to be a better story,” Segall said.