Heather Long

Yes, the average of about $600 more into the pockets of most Americans.

And that's going to keep things afloat.

That's going to keep that treading water feeling for the bottom 80% of the K-shape economy going.

That doesn't mean you feel great, but it's enough to keep people from totally falling under the water.

And so that's where I think things, when then all this AI investment continues to pump into the economy, hopefully we get that Supreme Court ruling on the tariffs that Courtney was talking about.

That would sure inject a little bit more, I don't know if certainty or clarity is the right word, but at least we'd have something to go off of.

I think to sum it up, it's a jobless boom and the middle class is frustrated.

Yeah, it's really an interesting discussion.

I mean, Amy, the way that I would look at it is we've basically been stuck around 4.4% unemployment since September.

So we're probably not getting a lot worse in the last few months, but it's hard to make a case that things really look like they're getting better.

I would characterize this as a hiring recession.

That's not an official economic term, but nobody wants to live in a world where pretty much the only places hiring are hospitals and restaurants.

That's just not very healthy for the economy and not a very dynamic economy.

Well, that's the big question.

Now that the genie's out of the bottle, can you prevent the president from doing it again and again?

And I don't know.

Supposedly, there should be legal ways to go after this, but we live in a very different world.

now than we did a year ago.

But I'll just go back to the big picture here.

I think for most Americans, what they're really focused on is that 2025 was the worst year for hiring outside of a recession since 2003.