Marketplace All-in-One

The word of the day today is “jobs.” The job market remains surprisingly strong, wages are rising, and job churn is high but settling. In this episode, a dive into the November jobs report and how it could influence the Federal Reserve’s next moves. Plus, day care staffing woes continue, Russia takes aim at Ukraine’s power grid, and Indigenous nations make progress in their push to co-manage public lands.

Job numbers from the Labor Department came in strong, and to help us make more sense of them, we are joined by Chris Low of FHN Financial. Elsewhere, the saga over Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan has reached the halls of the Supreme Court. Then, we examine the Fed’s balancing act of taming inflation while also trying to keep people working.

We take a deeper dive into the policy, which has been the catalyst for a swelling of unrest and protests around the country. Elsewhere, the BBC reports on how BP is being urged to aid victims of the war in Ukraine.

From the BBC World Service: Not everyone is on board. Poland’s government is said to be seeking a cap that’s lower than the $60 broadly agreed to by European Union countries. And, some highlights from the last five years of our reporting from Turkey, Mozambique, India and the U.K.

Data regulators in Ireland fined Meta earlier this week for failing to safeguard the sensitive information of Facebook users. The tech giant was fined the equivalent of about $275 million for a 2019 data leak, when personal information from more than 500 million Facebook users was scraped off the site and then published in a hacker forum. Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Adam Satariano, a tech correspondent for The New York Times based in London, who reported on this story. He says this recent punishment is just one of several fines the Irish government has imposed on Meta, and it’s part of a larger trend.

There’s no one economic figure that paints a perfect picture of where inflation is going. On today’s episode, we’ll do the numbers for fresh economic data and hear what economists are looking at to predict inflation’s next move. Plus, who gets the blame when layoffs come, what lessons new teachers are learning on the job and why consumer spending is on the rise while savings dwindle.

idespread access to charging stations is key to getting drivers to go electric. But the businesses who can build those stations still aren’t sure how they’ll make money. Today, we’ll discuss the EV charging station dilemma. Plus, we’ll highlight an investigation into the failures of Florida’s foster care system. And, tell you about the women making history at the men’s World Cup. Then, Kimberly defends her status as a Midwesterner.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

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Marriage is all about beginnings, but staying married can often depend on how well two people adapt to change. The changes for Taylor and Gavin have been constant in the 14 years since they said, “I do.” There have been struggles and arguments over money, or the lack thereof. But even when money’s been the problem, having more of it hasn’t always been the solution. This week, we’ll hear the story of how they held things together and what they expect from each other when the unexpected keeps happening.

This episode was reported by Reema Khrais, produced by Marque Greene, edited by Karen Duffin and engineered by Drew Jostad.

Inflation actually cooled off, just a touch, according to a key measure. We talk to Michael Hewson of CMC Markets in London about what slowing interest rate hikes could mean for an economy. Also, the head of the European Council met up with China’s president.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell offered some clues about that this week. Also, Giving Tuesday numbers show a growing sense of generosity. Then, we look at the speculation looming over Germany’s leadership as it pertains to relations with China.