Inflation

The economy lost 20 million jobs when the country shut down during the pandemic. Those jobs have now returned but because the population is larger the labor participation rate is down to 62.3% from the pre pandemic rate of 63.3% There are currently 10 million job opening which is the same as pre pandemic. This shortage of employees will put pressure on employers to raise wages which will lead to what economist call wage/price inflation. US oil production is now at 12 million barrels per day which is one million barrels below the pre pandemic levels. Russian oil production is down because of the war and OPEC recently announced they would cut production by one million barrels per day. All of this will fuel rising inflation which means the fed will keep raising interest rates. Purchasing things like cars and homes will cost more as will credit card purchases. Rising oil prices means rising transportation cost for all products. This will also increase gasoline prices. The push to bring manufacturing jobs back home means higher wages so inflation will be around and getting higher over the next few years. The US must go all out to get oil production up to the 17 million barrels it was production in 2019.