Erika McEntarfer

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

More information on CPI collection reductions More information on CPI collection reductions

BLS explaining its CPI data collection reductions

"Roughly 15 percent of the sample in the other 72 areas also was suspended from collection, on average."

But it reassured this kind of reduction will have limited effect on CPI

www.bls.gov/cpi/notices/...

That was my theory going into the piece, but it turned out to be not only false but seemingly the opposite: the biggest employment gains young male grads have made in the past year have been in software and engineering jobs

I’ve talked to many young people in recent years who are interested in an econ PhD but don’t want a career in academia. Glad to see NABE stepping in here to provide more information on nonacademic careers for economists. (Only half of recent US econ PhDs work in academia!)

Assume I’d missed a turn in the trail and backtrack

There’s a hiring freeze in effect since January

Attn users of CPS microdata: the April 2025 has been re-posted on the Census site to correct some errors in the weights and geography variables.

Links in next tweet.

One of the weird quirks of the structure of the fed is that the board is a federal agency but not the banks, which means they get different industry classifications

If I’m reading the graph notes correctly that’s the regional banks not the board (they are in different naics)

As a former drive-thru cashier, in the restaurants I worked this person is a floater; running around helping the kitchen between orders. The experience is likely better because the AI isn’t washing a grease pan while talking to you

Panda walking

Can’t beat this commute to the office (walk to Woodley Park metro via the Zoo)

The Impossible Four-Hour Test You Need to Pass to Become a Tariff Pencil Pusher Almost everyone fails the open-book exam, which covers the technicalities of classifying merchandise and entry and valuation procedures; ‘pure hell’

www.wsj.com/economy/trad...

Even the guide dogs are posing among the blossoms on the mall today

CPS data users take note:

As one of the developers of QWI I am glad to see you promoting it! Indeed, the sheer density of what is available can be a barrier to entry - but there’s been an uptick in use over time as it becomes more widely known.

I’ve been in some FSRDCs that might match this description

Have an entire building of this it’s amazing stuff

A nice defense of the utility of vacancy data for policymakers, and how vacancies might rise and fall with recruiting intensity

The AEA has posted complimentary recordings of the AEA Recent Developments Lectures presented at #ASSA2025 by leading scholars in different fields of economics. #econsky www.aeaweb.org/conference/w...

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work

Highly recommend this NAS report on AI and the future of work, which nicely summarizes the work on this to date and has a very useful bibliography

VIDEO of terrific panel at #assa2025 on inflation. @jasonfurman.bsky.social does a great job moderating conversation with Ben Bernanke (@brookings.edu), Christy Romer, John Cochrane. Worth watching. #econsky

It felt like every billboard and bus ad in SF was AI-related

Miss the days when a winter storm during ASSAs would break economist social media as we all logged on to complain about our travel woes

I’m stuck at LAX until 530 :( Say hi to Randy from me.

Wisdom of the crowds: first flight from DC to ASSA meetings I’ve ever been on that wasn’t packed with other economists. Seemed like a bad sign and sure enough it was.

Home in the frozen north for the weekend helping muck out these guys stables

ESCoE Conference on Economic Measurement 2025 - Call for papers closes 13 Jan 2025 - ESCoE ESCoE will hold its annual conference, organised in partnership with the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS), on 21-23 May 2025.

Submit your papers to the 2025 @escoeorg.bsky.social conference!

Keynotes include @erikbryn.bsky.social, Carol Propper (Imperial) and Vipin Arora (BEA).

Attendance is free and the conference takes place on KCL's beautiful central London campus.

#EconSky

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When they bring new firms into the sample, there is training for new respondents.

But vacancy yields do vary across establishments and over the business cycle, and about 20% of hires have no prior vacancy in JOLTS (Davis, Faberman, Haltiwanger 2013 QJE)

Can’t say, the linked paper is using Survey of Earned Doctorates linked to US linked employer-employee data, no such census exists for MBA and MA programs

Early Career Paths of Economists inside and outside of Academia (Fall 2023) - Economics job candidates face considerable professional and financial uncertainties when deciding between academic and nonacademic career paths. Using novel panel data, we provide a broa...

Tech hired about 5% of new econ PhDs although a higher share at top departments