Why This Economist Says Immigration Crackdown is Reshaping U.S. Job Growth
4/19/202633 min
In this week's episode of WSJ’s Take On the Week, co-hosts Miriam Gottfried and Telis Demos take off with a conversation on airlines. Alaska, Southwest, United and American are all reporting this upcoming week. Telis and Miriam get into how these carriers are dealing with skyrocketing fuel prices. Plus, they explore why luxury giants like LVMH and Kering are cooling even as the S&P 500 clears the 7,000 mark. They also talk about the mounting political drama surrounding the nomination of Kevin Warsh to succeed Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve. After the break, Miriam and Telis are joined by Wendy Edelberg, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank to get into how an immigration crackdown may explain why the U.S. jobs numbers have been so volatile. Edelberg explains why traditional job growth numbers are no longer a reliable gauge of economic health and why a "breakeven" rate of zero jobs might actually signal a strong market under the current immigration policy shift, and how the U.S. labor market is becoming like Japan’s. Finally, she offers some insight on why the Fed may need to rethink its calculus on interest rates as job growth potentially turns negative. This is WSJ’s Take On the Week where co-hosts Telis Demos, Heard on the Street’s banking and money columnist, and Miriam Gottfried, WSJ’s investing and wealth management reporter, cut through the noise and dive into markets, the economy and finance—the big trades, key players and business news ahead. Have an idea for a future guest or episode? How can we better help you take on the week? We’d love to hear from you. Email the show at takeontheweek@wsj.com. To watch the video version of this episode, visit our WSJ Podcasts YouTube channel or the video page of WSJ.com Further Reading Spirit’s Bankruptcy Exit in Flux as Jet Fuel Prices Surge Delta’s Ace in the Hole for Surging Jet Fuel Costs: Its Own Refinery How Airline Passengers Are Being Hit by the Jet-Fuel Crunch Facing Soaring Fuel Costs, Delta Tells Customers to Plan for Pricier Flights Trump’s Fed Chair Pick Kevin Warsh Is Caught in an Unprecedented Standoff Wall Street Is Whiffing on Its Economic Forecasts Breaking Down the Booming March Jobs Report For more coverage of the markets and your investments, head to WSJ.com, WSJ’s Heard on The Street Column, and WSJ’s Live Markets blog. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Follow Miriam Gottfried here and Telis Demos here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Telis Demos· Host0:29
[upbeat music] Hi, Miriam.
Miriam Gottfried· Host0:33
Hi, Talis.
Telis Demos· Host0:34
Well, we've got a big conversation today about immigration and the economy. Uh, it's something that obviously is at the forefront of people's minds politically about the Trump era, and w- we've addressed it here and there in our conversations about the job market. But we haven't really just head-on looked at data and talked about w- how we should factor this into our economic forecasting. So we're gonna do that a little bit later in the show. But first, of course, we wanna check in on what's going on in the markets, and the thing that has obsessed everyone [laughs] [laughs] ... now for a while is the price of oil and related things. And we're getting a new lens on how that is filtering through our economy through airline earnings reports. This upcoming week, we've got Alaska, Southwest, United, and American. And of course, recently Delta reported. So Miriam, what did we learn from, from past reports and, and what are you looking for in these upcoming reports?
Miriam Gottfried· Host1:25
Well, I think what's really interesting is that there's not a one-to-one correlation