A woman working in tech who is a role model and has gone out of her way to support the cause of getting more women in IT in the last 18 months. As well as examining the women in IT initiatives the candidates have pioneered to inspire women to succeed in technology, judges will also assess their leadership and the initiative’s impact on, and integration with, the business.

Aaratee Rao, Microsoft

Adrienne Shulman, Cornerstone

Ashley Scott, Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Deborah Waters, Citi

Elise Kohl-Grant, IMSNY

Katie Toole, BNY Mellon

Kitty Chaney Reed, IBM

Mary N. Chaney, Minorities in Cybersecurity Inc.

Michelle Knedler, Pearson Education??

Swathi Young, Integrity Management Services Inc.

Sponsored by

Snapshot is a monthly update of the Fifth District economy, published by the Regional Economics section of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Snapshot includes timely analysis of labor market, household, and housing market conditions at both the state and metro area level. Comments and suggestions on content and format are welcomed.

Recently, the news has been filled with stories of employers unable to find workers. While there's disagreement over whether this is because of ongoing health concerns related to the pandemic, lack of child care while schools are out, fiscal support allowing unemployed workers to delay their job search or some other reason, many businesses have pointed to a shortage of labor as one of their top concerns over the past few months.

This is evident in business surveys. In the National Federation of Independent Business's monthly Small Business Survey, 56 percent of small businesses reported few or no qualified applicants for job openings in June, just one percentage point off the all-time high reached the prior month. And in July, the Richmond Fed's Survey of Manufacturing Activity reported that the share of firms facing a decline in qualified labor was 34 percentage points higher than the share of firms having an easier time finding workers.

But is every industry...

Recently, the news has been filled with stories of employers unable to find workers. While there's disagreement over whether this is because of ongoing health concerns related to the pandemic, lack of child care while schools are out, fiscal support allowing unemployed workers to delay their job search or some other reason, many businesses have pointed to a shortage of labor as one of their top concerns over the past few months.

This is evident in business surveys. In the National Federation of Independent Business's monthly Small Business Survey, 56 percent of small businesses reported few or no qualified applicants for job openings in June, just one percentage point off the all-time high reached the prior month. And in July, the Richmond Fed's Survey of Manufacturing Activity reported that the share of firms facing a decline in qualified labor was 34 percentage points higher than the share of firms having an easier time finding workers.

But is every industry...

Recently, the news has been filled with stories of employers unable to find workers. While there's disagreement over whether this is because of ongoing health concerns related to the pandemic, lack of child care while schools are out, fiscal support allowing unemployed workers to delay their job search or some other reason, many businesses have pointed to a shortage of labor as one of their top concerns over the past few months.

This is evident in business surveys. In the National Federation of Independent Business's monthly Small Business Survey, 56 percent of small businesses reported few or no qualified applicants for job openings in June, just one percentage point off the all-time high reached the prior month. And in July, the Richmond Fed's Survey of Manufacturing Activity reported that the share of firms facing a decline in qualified labor was 34 percentage points higher than the share of firms having an easier time finding workers.

But is every industry...

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the Federal Reserve’s National IT organization will present a virtual conference on cloud computing on September 29-30, 2021. This year’s two half-day virtual event is a continuation of the February 2020 summit on Cloud Computing and will focus on various aspects of cloud amid (and emerging from) a global pandemic.

The event will feature panel discussions on topics including cloud adoption, cybersecurity and data in the cloud, business resiliency and third-party risk management in the pandemic and post-pandemic environment, innovation and collaboration in the cloud, as well as a regulator-only session.

For more information email the Financial Technology Summit Co-Chairs, Whitney Austin and Kendall Kapetanakis.

Thomas Lubik discusses whether the government should spend beyond its means in response to an economic shock, like the COVID-19 pandemic, or an emerging crisis, like climate change. This is the second of a two-part conversation with Lubik, a senior advisor at the Richmond Fed.

Research staff regularly monitors the national economy, helping the Richmond Fed grasp current conditions and their implications for monetary policy. Updated weekly, the following data is part of the information presented during policy discussions and meetings with our board of directors.

Recent research has emphasized the importance of a few large firms in driving overall economic fluctuations, a view known as the "granular hypothesis." I find that the granular hypothesis can explain about 15 percent of aggregate U.S. fluctuations, a smaller share than found in other research. Thus, the granular hypothesis plays a meaningful role for the U.S. economy, but there is still plenty of room for aggregate factors to be relevant.

Thomas Lubik discusses why the government may decide to spend more than it takes in and the constraints that exist on deficit spending. This is the first of a two-part conversation with Lubik, a senior advisor at the Richmond Fed.

President Joe Biden and members of Congress have been negotiating an infrastructure spending plan for several months. One component of each iteration thus far has been to provide the reauthorization of funding for highway, road, and bridge repair and construction. While the exact spending amount is still to be determined, it seems highly likely that investing in roads and bridges is forthcoming. So, what is the current state of highways, roads, and bridges in the Fifth District, where are projects underway, and where might some additional spending be needed?

Road and Bridge Quality

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics within the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) reports on the quality of roads and bridges across the United States. The percentage of roads rated as acceptable and the percentage of bridges rated as poor provide two useful metrics for evaluating the quality of surface transportation across the Fifth District.

The Federal Highway...

“I really do think, expect and hope that when we get to August and September we’re going to see really good numbers,” he added.

“To me, it will be an indicator that the job market is unclogged,” the Richmond Fed President

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and his allies at the Fed have noted that the economy is still 7.6 million jobs short of the pre-pandemic level of employment.

Some other Fed officials and economists argue that this figure is misleading because many workers have voluntarily decided to retire and these jobs aren’t going to come back.

Barkin said temporary factors like child care, worries about the pandemic, and hopes for good starting pay at traditionally low skilled jobs is clogging the market. Workers’ wage aspirations have increased after the talk in Washington earlier this year about a $15 minimum wage.

Barkin said all these factors would sort out – and that job growth will be stronger.

“I think we’ve got a long way to...