Lydia DePillis

Top Journal Retracts Study Predicting Catastrophic Climate Toll

Early last year, a study came out in Nature that forecasted climate change would cause truly shocking economic damages at the end of the century if left unabated. Today, the journal retracted it.

I explain why and what it means: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/b...

Video: What the Jobs Report Tells Us About the Economy What does the September jobs report, delayed by six weeks because of the government shutdown, say about the economy? Lydia DePillis, our economics reporter, describes how the report, which was better ...

Did some videosplaining of the jobs situation that we learned about yesterday: www.nytimes.com/video/busine...

Hiring Increased in September, but So Did the Unemployment Rate

Our final pass on today's jobs report, the first since early September and the last until mid-December. In a twist, job growth is healthy but unemployment is rising: www.nytimes.com/live/2025/bu...

Aw so kind of you!!

How Private Equity’s Vision for a Roofing Conglomerate Went Bust

Since the pandemic, private equity firms have been aggressively rolling up home remodeling and roofing companies. A couple of weeks ago, one of the largest platforms abruptly collapsed. I found out what happened, and explain what it means: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/b...

Where the Taste of Home Comes With a Tariff Charge

Today from me: Come for the cat picture, stay for the exploration of how specialty grocery stores serving immigrant diasporas are seeing the most concentrated impact from super-high tariffs on places like Myanmar and Bangladesh. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/b...

Companies Have Shielded Buyers From Tariffs. But Not for Long.

For an effective tariff rate that's now at about 9%, pass through to consumer prices has been somewhat muted. But if you listen to earnings calls, that's a mirage: Businesses are saying they'll have to keep raising prices to make up for the new costs.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/b...

Nobody's drawing conclusions here!

Ah thank you!

Got it. No, I think that's generally regarded as the most robust paper out there on this. I guess I'm skeptical that all the people who don't get jobs in AI-intensive fields are instead finding jobs elsewhere, but certainly would also like to see more complete data.

Were you not convinced by this Brynjolfsson et al paper? digitaleconomy.stanford.edu/wp-content/u...

Shutdown With No Clear End Poses New Economic Threat

Usually government shutdowns just displace economic activity. This one could be different: It's broader than some we've seen in the past, it could be longer, and it's hitting at the worst time of year for many farms and small businesses. From me today: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/b...

Here is our full story that Vance is dismissing, with primary source documents showing Trump cabinet members with multiple primary-residence mortgages

www.propublica.org/article/trum...

www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...

Black Unemployment Is Surging Again. This Time Is Different.

Today from me: The unemployment rate for Black workers has leapt upward in recent months, while staying level for other demographic groups. There are some pretty strong indications of what's going on.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/b...

High-Skilled Visas Have Problems. Trump’s $100,000 Fee Won’t Fix Them.

Today from me: Everybody knew H-1B visas had problems. There were lots of ideas out there for how to fix it, and maximize the program's economic impact.

A $100,000 fee wasn't one of them.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/b...

The equation of A.I. usage with "progress" seems like a big embedded assumption here

Georgia ICE Raid Netted Workers With Short-Term Business Visas

Today with @haleaziz.bsky.social :
Most of the Korean workers detained during an ICE raid on a Ga. battery plant last week were on short-term businesses visas. In at least one case, ICE acknowledged a worker hadn't violated his visa, and forced him to deport anyway. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/b...

The Poverty Rate Was Stable Last Year, as Household Income Grew Slightly

In the annual poverty & income numbers for 2024, the numbers appeared calm on the surface but reveal some interesting divergences and convergences underneath: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/09/b...

Immigration Raid Exposes Tensions From Seoul to Washington to Rural Georgia

Pitched in on our coverage of the giant ICE raid on an EV battery plant in Georgia, where the Trump administration's immigration enforcement agenda is coming into conflict with its U.S. manufacturing ambitions. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/u...

Aww thanks bud, the editors did a great job with it! Yes bikes soon!!

Labor Market Stalled This Summer, With August Data Adding to Slowdown

Here's our final cut on this morning's sputtering jobs report, which shows employment not even growing fast enough to soak up the shrinking number of people entering the labor force: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/b...

It is weird! We have been trying to find out more about his time there. But the Archdiocese confirmed he gradated with a BA.

We know where he got his undergrad degree -- St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

Mounting Deportations Meet Slow Hiring in a ‘Curious Kind of Balance’

Happy jobs day. As a special treat, I also have a story from Miami about the strange equilibrium we're in: As the Trump administration gradually starts reversing the flow of immigration, the unemployment rate has remained steady even as job growth slows.
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/b...

.... as the story discusses

The A.I. Spending Frenzy Is Propping Up the Real Economy, Too

From me today: Squinting at GDP numbers, it's become clear that A.I. is propping up the economy -- not through productivity growth, but simply the sheer amount of money going into physical infrastructure needed to support all the computing power it gobbles up.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/b...

Joining @thebrianlehrershow.bsky.social shortly to talk trade and economy and stuff. Hop on that @wnyc.org channel

Economic Data Has Taken a Dark Turn. That Doesn’t Mean a Crash Is Near.

Labor market and inflation data have taken a turn for the worse over the past few weeks. But this economy has taken a bunch of hits in recent years and kept on ticking, so economists aren't doomcasting yet.
Here's my effort to put it all together: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/b...

As Trump Pushes International Students Away, Asian Schools Scoop Them Up

One more from my stint in South Korea: At last count, some 7 million people studied abroad. As Trump pushes away international students, it appears that fewer of them will come to American schools.

But Southeast Asia is aggressively taking up the slack.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/14/b...

Trump’s Pick to Lead Labor Data Agency Adds to Fears of Political Interference

With @bencasselman.bsky.social and Alan Rappeport, a bit more on President Trump's pick to lead the BLS, Dr. E.J. Antoni III. The nomination has elicited strong concerns about the integrity of data that policymakers, investors, and journalists all depend on.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/b...