Inflation is down from where it was last summer, but progress in lowering it further has been slow, and that’s concerning, says Loretta J. Mester, president and CEO of the Cleveland Fed, in a May 26 CNBC interview. Watch the interview.
What’s fueling high, persistent inflation?
Strong demand and supply factors—including supply chain disruptions—have been the most significant contributors to high and persistent inflation during the pandemic and its aftermath, new research suggests. Read the commentary.
Workforce
Understanding the economy
We produce indicators and datasets to inform the public, policymakers, and researchers about economic conditions, including inflation, employment, and risks to the financial system. Sample our menu of economic offerings.
What’s behind job vacancies decline?
Monetary policy is partially responsible for the recent drop in job vacancies, according to a new Economic Commentary. Read it.
Shifting perspectives and expectations on employment
How did low-wage workers and nondegreed job seekers experience the economy during the pandemic and the subsequent economic recovery? Read the report.
Industry
How much should we charge?
Strength of demand, maintenance of profit margins, labor and other costs, and competitors’ prices are among the key factors firms weigh in setting prices when inflation is high, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland, Atlanta, and New York. Read this summary of their findings.
Economic Inclusion Supporting our communities
There are still significant impediments limiting those in low- and moderate-income households and communities from fully benefiting from a strong economy, but over the past decade progress has been achieved through partnership and perseverance, says Cleveland Fed President and CEO Loretta. J. Mester.
Conversations on Economic Inclusion
Conversations on Economic Inclusion features experts who help us learn about how to get more people participating more fully in the economy. Recent topicsinclude the state of racial inequality in the United States, childhood adversity and labor market outcomes, and career and technical education.
Learning from the Community Issues Survey
Organizations across our region with direct knowledge of issues impacting low- and moderate-income people and communities shared their observations on four major trends. This spring’s survey results are trending negatively in all four areas.
Industry
The latest we’re hearing from our region
How are businesses and manufacturers in the region served by the Cleveland Fed working to keep their employees “happy and loyal” during a prolonged environment of wage pressure? Learn more.
Housing
Affordable housing efforts in central Ohio
How are community partners in the Columbus area looking to leverage public and private funds to stabilize and expand affordable housing? Read the blog.
Inside the new home mortgage explorer
Homeownership is an onramp to wealth for some Americans, and the freshly updated home mortgage explorer from the Cleveland and Philadelphia Federal Reserve Banks helps you pinpoint who is getting a foot in the door and where. Here’s what’s new.
Outreach
New addition to our board of directors
We welcome Darrell McNair, president and CEO of MVP Plastics, Inc. in Middlefield, Ohio, to our Cleveland board of directors. Learn more about Darrell.
Supporting and showing up in our community
More than 60 Cleveland Fed employees, along with their friends and family, marched in the Pride in the CLE parade in Cleveland to support the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community. The Bank is an affirming place to work, offering spousal, domestic partner, gender-affirming, fertility, and adoption benefits and support for all of its employees and their dependents.
Question: How have the high inflation rates in 2022 and 2023 affected CEOs’ expectations of future inflation, and why does that matter?
Edward: The Survey of Firms’ Inflation Expectations, or SoFIE, is a tool that allows us to see what executives are thinking about inflation, which can potentially affect their price-setting decisions. Created in 2018 by external researchers and assumed by the Cleveland Fed this year, the survey is another measure that our Center for Inflation Research makes available to the public, researchers, and policymakers to better understand inflation and its determinants. High inflation impacts everybody, in ways that can often harm individuals, and the more we know about what moves inflation, the more policymakers can take actions to bring inflation down to a lower level that imposes fewer costs on society.
Read the entire Q&A, in which Edward Knotek, who leads the Center for Inflation Research and the Research Department’s economists and analysts, explains the importance of monitoring CEOs’ inflation expectations.
July 13
Connecting Communities: The Economic Well-Being of US Households in 2022
