Friday October 1, 2021
12:30-1:30 p.m.
Online Zoom Meeting
Dear Colleagues:
Greetings, and I hope that you and yours are healthy and safe – and can stay that way.
As part of being careful to stay safe, the “Friday Lunch,” a CWRU tradition since 1989, continues on Zoom. We work to present experts from campus and sometimes beyond to discuss important issues for the university, local community, nation or the international stage.
This Week’s Program
This week’s discussion addresses one of the most puzzling developments since the COVID-19 pandemic began: the sudden difficulty employers are having with recruiting workers. “Around this Labor Day,” USA Today reported, “the nation faces an overriding question. Where is the labor? And when is it coming back?”
Shortages appear to be especially acute in the fast food and broader restaurant industries, and in parts of the retail industry. I suspect we all have experienced some consequences – long waits and unstocked shelves being simple examples. And we have seen stories about employers significantly raising wages to attract more workers.
This is all very puzzling, since, at the end of August, at least 5.3 million fewer people were employed than had been before the COVID shock. Normally that would mean greater supply of labor and so a lower price – but seemingly not so at the moment.
Something similar seems to be going on in many countries. A Deloitte report, for example, tells us that, “Global unemployment remains high in 2021. And so do job vacancies.” The combination of COVID and Brexit is said to have sparked a “blue-collar wage boom” in the UK – but lots of people still are without work.
Whatever is happening may be just one indicator that standard economic theory about how wages are set by supply and demand, so should go down with high unemployment and up with tight labor markets, is missing something. That had in fact been noticed before the COVID shock, because labor markets had by standard measures been tight for years, but wages were not going up – puzzling some labor economists just as much.
So what is going on? The links embedded above contain some possible explanations, but it makes sense to ask a real expert. Dr. Fallick is a labor economist who has researched issues of employment and wages for years, and in his position at the Cleveland Fed has perhaps the best possible view of local developments. I am excited to welcome him for this discussion
Signing In
This semester’s discussions will begin at 12:30 p.m., the usual time. The meeting will be set up as from Noon to 2:00 p.m., so people are not all signing in at the same time and to allow for the discussion to run a bit long. Each week we will send out this newsletter with information about the topic. It will also include a link to register (for free) for the discussion. Every Monday the same information will be posted on our website: fridaylunch.case.edu.
If you register, you will automatically receive from the Zoom system the link to join the meeting. This week’s link for registration is:
https://cwru.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIsf-mtrTstEtSXScSvCy_ez8VwXWQfvdCP
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Please e-mail padg@case.edu if you have questions about how the Zoom version of the Friday Lunch will work or any other suggestions. Or call at 216 368-2426 and we’ll try to get back to you. We are very pleased to be partnering this semester with the Siegal Lifelong Learning Program to share information about the discussions.
Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies
About Our Guest
Bruce Fallick is a senior vice president in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He leads the microeconomics group, which conducts research in various fields of microeconomics, including labor, education, public, and urban economics; oversees the regional analysis and outreach group; and provides advice on monetary policy. Dr. Fallick’s own work has focused on research related to labor and macroeconomics. His current research concentrates on job loss, unemployment, worker mobility, and wage rigidity.
Prior to joining the Cleveland Reserve Bank in 2014, Dr. Fallick served as a senior economist in the Division of Research and Statistics at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. He joined the Federal Reserve Board in 1993. Dr. Fallick also served as a visiting professor of economics at Oberlin College and as an assistant professor of economics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Fallick holds a BA in philosophy and economics from the University of Pittsburgh and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Schedule of Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:
October 8: A Conversation with Scott Cowen, Ph.D. President Emeritus and Distinguished University Chair, Tulane University, and Interim President of Case Western Reserve University. (October 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021)
October 15: Germany’s New Government – and Europe’s New Leadership? With Mark K. Cassell, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science, Kent State University.
October 22: The Biden Administration’s Immigration Policies. With Aleksandar Cuic, J.D., Director of the Immigration Clinic, Milton A. Kramer Law Clinic Center, CWRU School of Law.
October 29: Continuity and Change in the Opioid Epidemic. With Lee Hoffer, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology and Professor of Psychiatry.
November 5: Redeveloping Buckeye/Woodhill. With Taryn Gress, MSSA, Strategic Director, and Debbie Wilber, Assistant Director, National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities.
November 12: Can India Survive as a Secular Democracy? With Ananya DasGupta, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History.
November 19: Hospital Boom and Busts. With J.B. Silvers, Ph.D., Associate Dean of Finance and Professor of Banking and Finance.
December 3: President Biden’s Trade Policy: Continuity and Change. With Juscelino Colares, J.D., Schott-van den Eynden Professor of Business Law. |
