Less spending on holidays, but not on gifts
Americans concerned about the economic climate plan to reduce their households’ average holiday budget by just over 10% this year, real estate firm JLL said Wednesday in an online report.
The average budget is expected to be down to $1,133 from $1,261 in 2024, the report said. Shoppers still intend to spend about the same amount, $580, on gifts, but they’re likely to make substantial cuts to what they spend on household items such as food and decor. They’re also going to spend less on entertainment or holiday-related experiences, JLL said.
“This pullback represents more than just belt-tightening. It signals a shift toward more thoughtful, strategic holiday spending,” according to the report, which was based on a survey of about 1,000 consumers.
Households with incomes over $150,000 actually intend to increase their holiday spending by 26%, JLL said.
A quarter of people surveyed said they’ll skip buying things for themselves this holiday season, up from 17% in 2024.
Unemployment rate barely changed last month
The unemployment rate in September budged upward slightly from the previous month to 4.34%, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said Thursday. The agency also reported a minor increase in layoffs and other separations, and a drop in hirings of people who had been unemployed.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics had reported an unemployment rate of 4.32% in August, and 4.09% in September 2024.
The Chicago Federal Reserve branch normally publishes this monthly data ahead of the bureau’s monthly jobs report. That report was scheduled to be released tomorrow, but that’s unlikely because of the federal government shutdown.
The share of people who were laid off or left their jobs voluntarily amounted to just over 2% of employed workers in September. Forty-five percent of unemployed workers were hired last month, compared to 47% of people who sought jobs at the same time a year ago.
Employers slow to comply with pay transparency rules
Many employers in states that require them to include a salary range in job postings aren’t doing it, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York analysis published Thursday.
Ten states and a number of cities now require certain businesses to provide that information when they advertise open positions, in some cases with the aim of addressing pay disparities by race or gender, according to the analysis. Regulators often provide exemptions for small employers and temporary jobs.
The bank looked at three states that have implemented such rules since 2021, including Colorado, California and Washington state, as well as New York City. Combined, the four account for about 20% of U.S. job announcements.
As of last January, about a quarter of job advertisements in these places failed to comply with pay transparency requirements.
“The reasons for noncompliance, however, are still unclear,” wrote the analysis authors, Federal Reserve Bank research economist Richard Audoly and Roshie Xing, a Stanford University PhD candidate in economics. “Are employers unaware of the new rules requiring pay transparency in job postings or do they actively withhold the expected salary?”