FEATURED POST

August 12, 2025

New hires, old pay 

In recent months, pay has grown at a relatively steady pace for both job-stayers and job-changers for the past several months. But this data tracks only two subsets of the working population. If we zoom out to get a bigger picture, we see that pay for new hires—that big group of people who are brand new to a particular employer—has been stagnant for more than a year. When it comes to pay, new hires are in a rut.
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January 22, 2024

Main Street Macro: The power of Davos: Networks

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Davos, Switzerland, site of last week’s World Economic Forum gathering, is where movers and shakers meet. Leaders of companies, governments, and nonprofits around the world do here what they do best: Network.
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January 15, 2024

Main Street Macro: Reality check

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

You’ve probably heard that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In reality, when it comes to the future path of the economy, the line is rarely straight. We saw this last week, when a key measure of consumer inflation rose after three months of decline. This kind of volatility isn’t unusual, especially during times of geopolitical uncertainty.
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January 8, 2024

Main Street Macro: The trust factor

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

The annual World Economic Forum gathering in the mountainside retreat of Davos, Switzerland, is commonly described with a single word: Elite. But this year, Davos is attempting to draw attention to a new descriptor: Trust. The theme of this month’s Davos meeting, which begins Jan. 15, is rebuilding trust. The gathering will take place as the world confronts new and significant challenges and opportunities.
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December 18, 2023

Main Street Macro: North pole wage report

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Did you ever wonder how much Santa Claus makes? Turns out it’s a little more than $35 an hour. And how do I know this?
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December 11, 2023

Main Street Macro: A soft landing for payrolls

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Last week delivered the final job reports of the year from ADP and the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today, we’ll dive into that data and discuss what it means for next year.
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December 4, 2023

Main Street Macro: Bumpy rides and soft landings

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

I spent last week at a lovely hotel in France with a beautiful view of the ocean. Naturally, because I’m an economist through and through, the ocean view had me thinking of inflation news on both sides of the Atlantic. Two of the world’s largest economies – the United States and the European Union – have suffered with big bouts of high inflation since the pandemic. Now, they’re adjusting to higher, for possibly longer, interest rates in three important ways.
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November 20, 2023

Main Street Macro: Data to be thankful for

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

Last week marked my three-year anniversary as head of the ADP Research Institute. It’s been an https://www.bls.gov/cpi/eventful three years in the economy. Main Street has been on a bumpy ride these past years. As I reflect on that journey, there are three data points we can be thankful for this holiday season.
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November 13, 2023

Main Street Macro: The New Geography of Remote Work

by Nela Richardson, Ph.D.

At the ADP Research Institute, I work with an incredible team that stretches from Hawaii to Poland, with several stops along the way. Teams like ours have become more prevalent during the pandemic. Well-deserved attention has been given to hybrid work arrangements, and the associated compromises on how many days to spend in the office. However, unlike fully remote arrangements, hybrid work requires employees to live within a commuting distance of a work location.
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