Wednesday's Scoop: Shaky🌤️

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Here’s what you need to know today to inform your work, spending, and investments…

1. It pays to switch jobs right now.

2. The economy keeps slowing.

3. Record electronic waste is an escalating issue for the planet.

Unemployment Rate: 3.9%
^{Still near the lowest rate in 50+ years}

The US economy continued to slow in March. The Institute for Supply Management reported slowing business activity in the services sector in March for the second month in a row. Production and new orders aren’t growing as fast as they were. However, there were some good signs about inflation. The prices businesses paid dropped to the lowest level in four years. An ISM report earlier this week signaled a turnaround in the manufacturing sector, but the services industry makes up most of the US economy.

Switching jobs might be the fastest path to a higher salary. Payroll processing company ADP reported a 5.1% median increase in compensation over the past year for people who stayed in their jobs but a 10% increase for job changers. Wages haven’t been rising as quickly in the past few months, but companies seem to be still hiring. ADP reported companies added 184,000 employees in March, far more than economists expected. The leisure, hospitality, and construction sectors did most of the hiring.

Global Energy Emissions: 37.4B metric tons of CO₂
^{An all-time high, up 1.1% from 2022. (IEA)}

Mounting electronic waste has global policymakers worried. United Nations researchers reported that the global annual e-waste output is 62 million metric tons, equivalent to roughly 20 million shipping containers. That’s up 82% from 2010, increasing by nearly 90,000 shipping containers annually. Experts attribute this increase to limited repairability and shorter life cycles for electronics like computers, phones, and tablets. Companies like Apple face mounting pressure to open their products for easier repairs.

The Market: ⬆️ +0.1%
S&P 500: 5,211.49
1Mo: +2% | 1Yr: +27% | 5Yr: +80%

The market wavered on Wednesday as investors struggled with competing narratives of a slowing economy with less inflation versus a resilient economy with resurgent inflation. The messy economic data has enough for everyone right now.