The Urban Lab

Employers added 943,000 jobs in July, the highest monthly tally since August of last year. Unemployment is down and wages are up as the labor market tightens further, extending its recovery from the pandemic's initial, very deep losses. To parse the new data, Sam Chandan is joined by Dr. Marianne Wanamaker, Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee Knoxville's Haslam College of Business, Executive Director of the Baker Center for Public Policy, and former Chief Economist for the Domestic Economy at the White House Council of Economic Advisors, where she was also the nation's senior-most labor economist. The monthly labor market analysis is produced in collaboration with LaborIQ by ThinkWhy, a leading provider of analytical tools for data-driven recruiting, hiring, and compensation planning. To learn more about the Urban Lab, visit SamChandan.com and follow Sam Chandan on Twitter at SamChandan.

Employers added 559,00 jobs in May, moving the headline unemployment rate to its lowest level since before the pandemic. Even so, May's numbers fell short of expectations and follow on a downside surprise in hiring in April. To parse the new data, Sam Chandan is joined by Dr. Marianne Wanamaker, Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee Knoxville's Haslam College of Business and former Chief Economist for the Domestic Economy at the White House Council of Economic Advisors, where she was also the nation's senior-most labor economist. The monthly labor market analysis is presented by LaborIQ by ThinkWhy, a leading provider of analytical tools for data-driven recruiting, hiring, and compensation planning. To learn more about the Urban Lab, visit SamChandan.com and follow Sam Chandan on Twitter at SamChandan.

Seth Appleton, President of MISMO and former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Alfonso Costa, Executive Vice President at the Falcone Group and former Deputy Chief of Staff at HUD, return to the Urban Lab to discuss their recent appointments to the Bipartisan Policy Center's newly formed Housing Advisory Council and the outlook for affordable and workforce housing. The council is chaired by Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of HUD, Pamela Hughes Patenaude, former Deputy Secretary, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. The Council works to advance policies that address urgent affordable housing needs and address racial disparities in housing outcomes. To learn more about the Urban Lab, visit SamChandan.com. Follow Dr. Chandan and the Urban Lab on Twitter at @SamChandan and @UrbanLabPodcast.

The April jobs report fell woefully short of economists' expectations, with employers adding just 266,000 jobs to payrolls. For women, total employment declined from March to April, reinforcing the recovery's continued unevenness. At the same time, labor supply constraints in some sectors of the economy and the potential for stronger wage pressures are also a concern for monetary policy. To parse the new data, Sam Chandan is joined by Dr. Marianne Wanamaker, Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee Knoxville's Haslam College of Business and former Chief Economist for the Domestic Economy at the White House Council of Economic Advisors, where she was also the nation's senior-most labor economist.  The monthly labor market analysis is sponsored by LaborIQ by ThinkWhy, a leading provider of analytical tools for data-driven recruiting, hiring, and compensation planning.  To learn more about the Urban Lab, visit SamChandan.com and follow Sam Chandan on Twitter at SamChandan.

House prices are increasing at their fastest pace since the peak of the pre-Financial Crisis housing boom, fueled by shortfalls in supply and record-low mortgage rates. As a rising share of market participants adopt an auction mentality, economists and policymakers are growing concerned about overheating. In this segment, Dr. Frank Nothaft, Chief Economist of CoreLogic and former Chief Economist of Freddie Mac, joins Sam Chandan to discuss the latest CoreLogic data, the potential for a correction, the outlook for affordability, trends in the single-family homes for rent (SFR) market, and more. The Urban Lab is a non-partisan program featuring leaders in private industry, public service, and academia, who join us to share their views on improving all aspects of urban life, the competitiveness of cities, the housing market, and urban epidemiology and public health. The views expressed by guests are not necessarily those of the hosts or producers. For more information about the Urban Lab podcast and Dr. Sam Chandan, please visit samchandan.com/urbanlab. Follow Dr. Chandan and the Urban Lab on Twitter at SamChandan and UrbanLabPodcast.

Employers added more than 900,000 jobs in March 2021, the largest net gain in seven months. The increase is lifting confidence in the strength of the economic recovery, though it remains uneven. Kicking off a new monthly analysis of the labor market coinciding with the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ jobs report, Sam Chandan is joined by Dr. Marianne Wanamaker, Professor of Economics at the University of Tennessee and former Chief Economist (Domestic) at the White House Council of Economic Advisors, where she was also the senior-most labor economist. The monthly labor market analysis is sponsored by LaborIQ by ThinkWhy, a leading provider of analytical tools for data-driven recruiting, hiring, and compensation planning. To learn more about the show, visit SamChandan.com and follow Sam Chandan on Twitter at SamChandan.

Ed Pinto, Director of the Housing Center at the American Enterprise Institute and former Executive Vice President and Chief Credit Officer at Fannie Mae, recaps his March 2021 testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The Urban Lab is a non-partisan program featuring leaders in private industry, public service, and academia, who join us to share their views on improving all aspects of urban life, the competitiveness of cities, the housing market, and urban epidemiology and public health. The views expressed by guests are not necessarily those of the hosts or producers. For more information about the Urban Lab podcast and Dr. Sam Chandan, please visit samchandan.com/urbanlab. Follow Dr. Chandan and the Urban Lab on Twitter at SamChandan and UrbanLabPodcast.

Kicking off season 2 of the Urban Lab, Sam Chandan is joined by Arthanais Williams, Managing Director for Affordable Housing at Arbor Realty Trust. Williams discusses differences across the formal affordable housing sector and naturally occurring affordable housing, reasons for the persistent shortfall in the availability of affordable housing, and the different financing programs available to support the market. For more information about the Urban Lab podcast and Dr. Sam Chandan, please visit samchandan.com/urbanlab. Follow Dr. Chandan and the Urban Lab on Twitter at SamChandan and UrbanLabPodcast.

"Seven months after the first case of COVID-19 in New York was confirmed, it’s clear that the city and its surrounding region are enduring one of the biggest crises we have faced in nearly a century," writes the Regional Plan Association (RPA) in the preamble to its new evidence-based report, New York's Next Comeback. "While we can’t fully know what behavioral changes will be permanent, what new industries might emerge, or how the nature of work will evolve, we know that the next economy will be different." Tom Wright, CEO and President of the RPA and Chairman of the New Jersey State Planning Commission, joins Sam Chandan to discuss the impact of the pandemic on New York City and the key challenges in repositioning the region for renewed growth and prosperity. For more information about the Urban Lab podcast and Dr. Sam Chandan, please visit samchandan.com/urbanlab. Follow Sam and the Urban Lab on Twitter at SamChandan and UrbanLabPodcast.

Three of the nation's leading housing nonprofits—the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), a  community financial institution with $900 million in assets under management (AUM); Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF), a collaborative of  affordable housing providers owning nearly 150,000 rental homes; and, the National Affordable Housing Trust (NAHT), a low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) syndicator with over $1 billion in AUM—have announced a new partnership addressing the growing housing affordability crisis. In this special episode of the Urban Lab, Kimberly Latimer-Nelligan, President of LIIF, Lori Little, President and CEO of NAHT, and Andrea Ponsor, President and CEO of SAHF, discuss the $1 billion program that will build, protect, and preserve affordable homes across the United States.  For more information about the Urban Lab podcast and Dr. Sam Chandan, please visit samchandan.com/urbanlab. Follow Sam and the Urban Lab on Twitter at SamChandan and UrbanLabPodcast.