FEATURED POST
April 15, 2025
Small business startups: The beat goes on. Or does it?
While market volatility dominated the headlines last week, small businesses quietly hit a milestone. Applications for new startups reached their second-highest level on record. Small businesses have long served as the backbone of U.S. employment. During the economic expansion that preceded the 2020 pandemic—at more than 10 years, it was the longest period of growth in U.S. history—small business created almost two-thirds of all new jobs.
Read more
Subscribe to Data Lab
Stay up-to-date on the latest reports and trends.
Stay up to date with Data Lab
Please complete all fields.
Filter by:
April 15, 2024
Main Street Macro: All that glitters
Last week’s hotter-than-expected inflation report surprised and rattled investors. The Consumer Price Index accelerated by 0.4 percent in March from the previous month. After a months-long slowdown, price increases in February and March reached their highest level since September and put the annual rate of inflation at 3.5 percent, firmly out of reach of the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.
Read more
April 8, 2024
Main Street Macro: Manufacturing: A Cinderella story
I grew up in Indiana, a big basketball state, so college ball has a special place in my heart. My favorite part of the NCAA college tournament has always been the Cinderella team, those players that surprise everyone with a winning streak. The economy’s winning streak isn’t a big surprise
Read more
April 1, 2024
Main Street Macro: The good and the bad of stress
If you've ever had a job, you’ve probably experienced stress at work. There's no shame in it. But could workplace stress actually be a good thing? We examined this question, and found an answer.
Read more
March 25, 2024
Main Street Macro: How to catch a moving target
Change is a constant theme on this blog. That’s not only because the Main Street economy is always in motion, which it is, but also because big, long-in-the-making changes have begun rapidly shifting the economic landscape. For business leaders and decision-makers, it can be hard to keep up, let alone catch changing trends.
Read more
March 18, 2024
Main Street Macro: The new geography of work
Anyone who has ever done any hiring knows it’s not always easy to find the right person for the job. And if you’ve been on the other side of the interview table, you know that finding the right company to work for also can be challenging, even in a good economy. This matching process between job candidates and hiring managers has changed a lot over the last four years due to the growth of remote-work arrangements.
Read more
March 11, 2024
Main Street Macro: Missing the Mark: Trends in teacher salary
Teachers are a crucial part of the economy. I should know–my mom is a teacher. They’re part of the care economy, often described by economists as the workforce behind the workforce. In a new analysis, the ADP Research Institute’s Jeff Nezaj shows that even though the U.S. economy continues to add jobs at a rapid clip, the education sector is trailing behind. Here are three key findings.
Read more
March 4, 2024
Main Street Macro: What non-economists get wrong
Economists sometimes get their forecasts wrong. First, we say inflation will be transitory. Then we say there will be a soft – no, wait! – a hard landing. A recession! Or maybe, definitely, a soft landing.
Read more
February 26, 2024
Main Street Macro: The shrinking work week
Are you working fewer hours now than you did before the pandemic? If the answer is yes, you have a lot of company.
Read more
