WWJPD?
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Rising unemployment claims will be on Fed Chair Jay Powell's mind when he addresses the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium on Friday, and as he contemplates an interest rate decision in September. But he’s also got stable prices amid tariff uncertainty to worry about. So, we wonder: What Will Jay Powell Do? Later in this episode: Visual AI tools trail behind language-based models, popular spicy snacks could be a symptom of rising food costs, and Indigenous artists tell us how tariffs factor into their business.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm just going to say it. We are going heavy on the macroeconomics today. Oh, that and spicy food. |
| 0:10.2 | From American public media. This is Marketplace. |
| 0:19.6 | In Los Angeles, I'm Kyle Riznell. It is Thursday, today, August 21. Good as always to have you along, everybody. |
| 0:29.2 | There is a trifecta leading the macroeconomic conversation in this country right now. Tariffs, because, well, you all know why. Inflation pretty much |
| 0:39.3 | ditto. It's higher than the Federal Reserve wants it to be. And the labor market, still okay, |
| 0:44.8 | but trending toward not entirely okay. The latest piece of evidence of that came this morning |
| 0:52.0 | with first time claims for unemployment benefits which were up more |
| 0:55.5 | than expected to the highest level since mid-June. And the week before that, continuing claims, |
| 1:01.4 | that's all the laid-off workers who've been getting benefits for two weeks or more. That came |
| 1:05.6 | in just shy of two million people the most since November of 2021. |
| 1:13.4 | So, Marketplace's Mitchell Harmon gets us started. |
| 1:19.3 | Unemployment claims give us a snapshot of what's happening in the labor market in near real time. |
| 1:23.0 | First time claims reported today were filed just last week. |
| 1:27.1 | And when they're increasing, says Andrew Statener at the Century Foundation. |
| 1:33.7 | They're one of the key signs. We have a weakening job market. More people staying on unemployment benefits than a year ago. Hiring, really slowing down in all sectors except for health care. |
| 1:40.8 | A lot of employers are still loathe to downsize. They remember the labor shortages of the |
| 1:45.6 | pandemic. So new layoffs have not been at a recessionary level, but because people haven't been |
| 1:51.8 | able to get off unemployment, you've seen the total number steadily increase. But the glass may |
| 1:56.8 | still be half full, says Amy Glazer at staffing firm Adaco. |
| 2:08.4 | We don't want to confuse weakness with moderation. We're seeing a bit of a pause, not a halt, |
| 2:14.5 | in hiring. And we've seen declines in both employers' demand for workers and in the number of people looking for jobs. We've got the aging boomers that are retiring every day. |
| 2:20.0 | And then you also see the demand side of the house, |
... |
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