Market Insights
Benefits in the Time of Debt-Limit Standoffs
A monthly debrief on what’s new and noteworthy in the world of employee benefits. Read on for the latest information on the economy, the employment situation, and what's trending in the world of health insurance and employee benefits.
May 22, 2023
Market Insights
Employee Benefits Benchmarking State of the Union
The article provides an overview of the current state of employee benefits in the United States through the lens of benchmarking. It examines trends in benefit offerings and usage, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employer-sponsored benefits.
December 19, 2022
Market Insights
Healthcare Marketing Needs a Refresh
Healthcare marketing can be improved with better consumer preference data analytics, a less disjointed journey throughout the process of seeking and receiving care, and better analysis after the fact in order to evaluate and improve upon that performance in future iterations.
March 21, 2023
Market Insights
How Government Shutdowns Affect Employee Benefits
The US government is on course to shut down at the end of September, and if history is a guide, federal employees and those that depend upon the services they provide would be wise to prepare for those services to be on hiatus in the near future.
September 20, 2023
Market Insights
Is It Time To Leave Your Legacy Platforms Behind?
Transitioning your business processes from terrestrial technology platforms to cloud-based ones might seem like a an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, but the costs of not staying up-to-date with emerging technologies is often much greater.
April 11, 2023
Market Insights
Living Wage vs. Minimum Wage In The Modern Age
While the concept of a living wage has become an issue of increasing importance to both employers and employees in recent years, the number of workers actually earning a living wage has been steadily decreasing at the same time - though that decrease has not been experienced across industries and/or geographies in equal measure.
April 1, 2024
Market Insights
Mindsets Shift As Job Market Cools
While there are plenty of employees still playing musical chairs, there is an increasing concern about when the music will be stopping as both the hot job market and economy in general cool.
April 6, 2023
Market Insights
Post-Disaster Relief Is Rife With Fraud
Criminally fraudulent actors often prey on people and organizations when they are in at their weakest and most vulnerable, especially after experiencing a setback or personally unfamiliar situation like the fallout from a natural disaster.
May 25, 2023
Market Insights
Tech Roundup - January 2024
Each month, Mployer collects and presents some of the most relevant and interesting technology-related information, insight, and examples we've encountered in the areas of insurance, workforce management, and employee benefits.
January 10, 2024
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for April 2021
The jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on April 3, 2021 shows very solid gains in the job market that significantly surpass most economic forecasts and bode well for the proposition that the quickening pace of our recovery is indeed sustainable.
April 9, 2021
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for April 2022
The latest report on the state of the US economy shows that over 430k new jobs were added last month, bringing the unemployment rate down to 3.6%, the lowest it has been since the pandemic began. While this represents a complete economic recovery, some metrics, such as long-term unemployment and the number of people looking for work, have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.
April 4, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for August 2022
The US job market saw a record-setting growth last month with the addition of 528,000 jobs, doubling consensus economic forecasts, and marking the lowest unemployment rate in over half a century at 3.5%. However, concerns remain over a looming economic downturn and the balancing act between a hot job market, high inflation, and economic stability, which will be the primary focus of attention in the coming months.
August 8, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for December 2022
The US job market continued to show consistency, with employers adding 263,000 jobs last month, exceeding Dow Jones forecasts for the second month in a row, and the unemployment rate holding steady at 3.7% for the second consecutive month. The leisure and hospitality industry saw the largest number of new jobs, while wages rose again, with the average hourly pay rate up 18 cents to $32.82 across the workforce.
December 7, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for February 2022
The US added almost 500,000 new jobs last month, which more than doubled the number of new jobs initially reported in the two prior months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The leisure and hospitality industry saw the most significant gains, claiming over 150,000 new jobs, but the unemployment rate ticked back up to 4%, signaling a resurgence of reentrants into the labor market.
February 7, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for January 2021
The US labor market showed a slight improvement in January with a small reduction in unemployment rate and a small net increase in non-farm jobs. However, compared to February 2020, the market still has a long way to go, with the leisure and hospitality sector hit the hardest and healthcare jobs still down by over half a million since the pandemic struck.
February 9, 2021
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for July 2021
The big headline number from the latest jobs report is 850 thousand new jobs added over the last month, which is certainly good news and underscores the quickening pace of the current economic recovery.
July 15, 2021
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for July 2022
The US unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6% for the fourth consecutive month, while job growth exceeded expectations, with the US adding 372,000 jobs in February. The professional and business services industry added 74,000 new jobs, edging out the 64,000 jobs added in the leisure and hospitality industry, and healthcare added 54,000 jobs, while the transportation and warehousing industry added 36,000 jobs, and manufacturing added 29,000 jobs.
July 11, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for June 2021
The unemployment rate ticked down .3% last month bringing the total number of unemployed persons down by nearly 500k, which is an improvement over the somewhat disappointing jobs report released in May. The number of people seeking unemployment aid has dropped for 5 straight weeks now.
June 16, 2021
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for June 2022
The U.S. unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6% for the third consecutive month; this is not only a testament to economic stability despite inflationary pressure, but also marks an almost 50-year historic low.
June 6, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for March 2022
The US economy added 678k new jobs in February, bringing the unemployment rate down to 3.8%, the lowest rate since the start of the pandemic. While economists argue that the economy has essentially recovered, the impact of COVID-19 is not yet a thing of the past, and the destabilization of Ukraine may negatively affect the global economy in the coming months.
March 7, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for May 2021
This month’s Employment Situation release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows jobs gains that have fallen short of expectations and an unemployment rate that is largely a story of ‘two steps forward, one step back’ over the last several months.
May 14, 2021
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for May 2022
The US job market added nearly 430,000 new jobs in February, the 12th consecutive month with more than 400,000 job additions, with the manufacturing and transportation industries each adding more than 50,000 jobs. While there were no significant changes in employment rates among various worker groups and demographics, and despite concerns around rising inflation and supply chain issues, the job market has remained stable, although economists must consider the possibility of a recession in the near future.
May 9, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for May 2023
The latest economic release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. added 253k new jobs last month, while the unemployment rate fell to 3.4% for just the second time since the late 1960s.
May 5, 2023
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for November 2021
The US economy added over half a million jobs in February, indicating a stronger and more resilient economy than previously anticipated. Although the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6%, it remains over 1% higher than before the pandemic, but this rate is historically considered strong and there are signs of continued progress towards pre-pandemic levels.
November 9, 2021
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for October 2021
The latest release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that almost 200,000 new jobs were added last month, with the leisure and hospitality industries leading the field. Although this figure fell below what many analysts forecasted, it still represents forward progress in the economic recovery, with the unemployment rate dropping below 5% for the first time since the first pandemic wave hit the country back in the spring of 2020.
October 15, 2021
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for October 2022
The US added 260,000 jobs in February, slightly more than the 250,000 forecast by economists, as the unemployment rate fell to 3.5%. Wage growth also rose, increasing at an annualised rate of 5% over the month, while the percentage of employees working remotely fell 1.3% to 5.2%.
October 12, 2022
Market Insights
The Employment Situation for September 2021
In last month’s impressive report, nearly 1 million new jobs were added, capping off a period of strong economic growth throughout the spring and summer months. As such, it was perhaps inevitable that the positive momentum toward recovery would eventually slow.
September 15, 2021
Market Insights
The Great Resignation Leaves Many Job Leavers Resigned
A recent survey looks at some of the continuing effects that can be felt through the economy and workforce in the wake of the so-dubbed Great Resignation, including that a substantial proportion of people who quit their jobs during the pandemic regret doing so and believe they quit too hastily.
March 17, 2023
Market Insights
The Inflation Game
While inflation has slowed substantially already, economists have mixed opinions about whether or not we will be returning to pre-pandemic inflationary rates at any point in the near future.
Market Insights
The Market Employment Summary for April 2023
Each month, Mployer Advisor parses through the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent State Employment and Unemployment Summary to highlight some employment trends across various markets. This is an overview of April’s report.
April 21, 2023
Market Insights
The Market Employment Summary for August 2022
The US unemployment rate has fallen below 3.5%, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), to become the lowest registered unemployment rate in the country over the last 50 years. Fourteen states and Washington, D.C. saw reductions in their unemployment rates, with Minnesota remaining the state with the lowest unemployment rate for the second consecutive month.
August 22, 2022
Market Insights
The Market Employment Summary for February 2022
The state unemployment summary for January has been released a month later than usual due to unusual quirks in the timing of the latest economic reporting releases from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data is somewhat outdated, but can be seen as a forward-looking snapshot of conditions that are expected to continue improving, with 19 states seeing unemployment rate reductions and only three states seeing an increase in January.
March 15, 2022
Market Insights
The Market Employment Summary for January 2022
The US national unemployment rate has fallen below 4% for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with nearly 85% of states reporting a month-to-month decrease in the unemployment rate. However, only 17 states have experienced significant growth in new jobs, indicating that some of the reduction in the unemployment rate could be due to a drop in the labor pool of active job seekers, and economic optimism among consumers remains low.
January 28, 2022
Market Insights
The Market Employment Summary for July 2022
The US unemployment rate has remained stable at 3.6% for a third of a year, although some states have seen job growth slow in recent months, indicating that the market may have peaked. While a small number of states such as Alaska and West Virginia reported reduced job growth in the past two months, others including Tennessee, Texas and Florida gained significant numbers of new jobs, with Nevada, Texas and Georgia securing the largest increases over the year.
July 25, 2022
Market Insights
The Market Employment Summary for June 2023
Each month, Mployer Advisor parses through the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent State Employment and Unemployment Summary to highlight some employment trends across various markets. This is an overview of June’s report.
June 16, 2023
Market Insights
The Market Employment Summary for May 2022
The US unemployment rate remained at 3.6% for May and April despite the creation of almost a million jobs over the period, with only four states experiencing a decrease in unemployment and increase in jobs: California, Florida, Minnesota, and Texas. The majority of states saw no significant month-to-month change, and the US economic outlook for 2022 is positive, despite some predictions of future economic turmoil.
May 25, 2022
Market Insights
The Market Employment Summary for May 2023
Each month, Mployer Advisor parses through the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent State Employment and Unemployment Summary to highlight some employment trends across various markets. This is an overview of May’s report.
May 22, 2023