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How vulnerable are insurance companies to a downturn in the municipal bond market?
As the U.S. economy remains weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic, concern persists for the health and resilience of the municipal bond market. Municipal bonds (muni bonds) are debt securities issued by state and local governments to raise money and are generally considered to be safe investments. However, the recent slowdown in economic activity due to Covid-19 created significant stress on state and local government budgets, leading to a heightened risk for municipal bond downgrades and possibly even defaults. In this Chicago Fed Letter, we examine to what extent property and casualty (P&C) and ...
Journal Article
Job Mobility During and After the Pandemic
n the past few years, job changing in the United States — workers leaving their current employers for new ones — seems to have been on the rise. This development, often called the "Great Resignation," has attracted much attention, but the reasons behind it are far from clear. Is it the result of health and safety concerns causing workers to pull away from the workforce, or of workers reappraising their work-life balance? Or is it, perhaps, the rippling effects of the move toward remote work? It is even possible, as some have argued, that the Great Resignation is not so great after all and ...
Many Major District Metro Areas Have Yet to Recover to Their Prepandemic Employment Levels
The nation’s employment took less than 2 years to recover from the pandemic-associated recession. That many metro areas in our region have yet to see the same recovery suggests that structural factors may be limiting their progress.
Journal Article
President's Message: A Labor Drought?
Following the economic pain of the pandemic, the economy has bounced back, supported by historic levels of fiscal and monetary stimulus. Unemployment has dropped and is now basically at pre-pandemic levels. Yet labor force participation has been slow to return.