-
New KC Fed index reveals an improving US labor market
If the unemployment rate is a screwdriver in an economist's tool kit, the Kansas City Fed's new Labor Market Conditions Indicators (LMCI) is a Swiss army knife. Traditional measures of the nation's labor market — such as the unemployment rate and the number of job openings — are useful tools, but they may be too basic to capture the nuances of a complex economy and help direct monetary policy. How it works The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's new LMCI ratings rely on 24 labor market variables. It combines multiple measures of employment, unemployment and hiring using current data and forecasts. (You can find ... (full story)