Jeanne Whalen

But as of now, it hasn't had a huge impact.

Tariffs did start bumping up inflation over the summer, but the latest numbers from November show that inflation has gone down to 2.7% from 3% in September, though that number could be distorted due to the recent government shutdown.

And the Fed has actually cut interest rates three times this year, which shows the Fed is less concerned about inflation than it was several years ago.

But even though the rate of inflation has slowed, things are still more expensive than they were.

And consumers are fuming about it.

Another area of confusion in the economy?

The labor market.

Earlier this week, the government released the latest unemployment rate.

It had risen to 4.6%, which is the highest level in about four years.

But here again, the data might be off.

Last week, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said official statistics could be drastically overstating recent hiring.

The reason they might be overstated is a bit complicated, but it has to do with the way the government gathers the data.

In the labor market right now, which areas are growing and which areas are contracting?

Do we have a sense of that?

Hmm.

Is there any sort of broad theory as to why things are shrinking?

I mean, I've seen a lot of headlines.

We've covered this a bit on the podcast that CEOs are saying, we can be more efficient.

And, you know, AI is creating all these productivity gains.

We don't need so many workers anymore.