Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

With almost one-quarter of the Fifth District population located in small towns and rural communities, the Richmond Fed is committed to shedding light on the challenges and economic conditions faced by such communities. In the latest Macro Minute, the blog that explores the numbers behind the headlines on the national economy, John O'Trakoun, a senior policy economist, uses the Bureau of Labor Statistics methods of estimating county-level labor market indicators to study trends in rural and urban unemployment rates in the Fifth District. Read about John's findings, including how the rural labor markets have weakened in the Fifth District over the past year, especially in rural South Carolina, where the unemployment rate is 2 percentage points higher than a year ago: https://bit.ly/48Zu0Em #MacroMinute #Employment #LaborMarkets #Rural #SmallTowns

Recently, Vice Chair Philip Jefferson of the Federal Reserve Board spent the day at our Charlotte Branch. During his visit, he spoke to Charlotte Economics Club members about the history of the discount window. Read his full speech here: https://lnkd.in/eZ-jCwMC Thank you to Vice Chair Jefferson for visiting and learning more about our work in the Fifth District!

Did you know the Richmond Fed hosts a podcast, Speaking of the Economy? What better way to celebrate its sesquicentennial — 150th episode — than to be joined by Anna Kovner, the Richmond Fed’s new research director. Tim Sablik, podcast host and senior economics writer, asks Anna about her career path and move to Richmond, her role as research director, her future vision and current research initiatives, and her views on various topics including the banking turmoil of 2023, the “neutral rate” of interest and more. Listen here: https://bit.ly/4fALXeZ and follow along for other podcast episodes that feature Richmond Fed economists and other experts at the Bank and in the communities we serve about the economic issues they are exploring: https://bit.ly/3iSGFTZ #SpeakingoftheEconomy #Research #Economics

Are you an experienced sourcing and procurement professional? If so, support the Facilities Management organization and serve as the procurement professional primarily responsible for construction, architectural and engineering services. Help the team transform the traditional procurement model by forging value-added partnerships with business stakeholders within Facilities Management. Learn more and apply today: https://bit.ly/4eJdREs

What is a banking desert, and what are their effects on communities that live in them? Podcast host and senior economics writer Tim Sablik is joined by Alaina Barca, a community development research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Surekha Carpenter, a research analyst at the Richmond Fed. According to Barca, "There's no set definition in research, besides in general that it's an area with no physical bank branches around." In this Speaking of the Economy, the Richmond Fed's podcast, Barca and Carpenter talk about how the importance of having a physical bank branch differs by geography (i.e., urban versus rural), how they're monitoring historically unbanked and underbanked communities, and other topics. Listen here: https://bit.ly/40KDsth and visit the Banking Deserts Dashboard, a tool created by Fed Communities, a collaboration among the Board of Governors and all 12 Reserve Banks: https://bit.ly/48zjuT7 #SpeakingoftheEconomy #CommunityBanking #CommunityDevelopmentFinance

Lindsay Li, a Richmond Fed research associate, authored the latest Research Spotlight in Econ Focus, the Richmond Fed's economics magazine. Focusing on a recent working paper by Nicolas Morales, a Richmond Fed economist, and his co-authors, Lindsay highlights how the authors use the H-1B visa program as a source of random variation in immigrant inflow. In 2007, for example, all regular cap applications for H-1B workers went through a lottery to determine the acceptance because of high demand. Learn about these findings and what this means for the lottery-winning firms of small or large firms: https://bit.ly/40VChY6 and for more information, see the recent working paper: https://bit.ly/3xQDanX #EconFocus #Immigration #LaborMarkets

New Data Alert: A First Look at the 2024 Survey of Community College Outcomes Today, we released a first look at the key findings from the 2024 Survey of Community College Outcomes. Initially launched in 2021 as a pilot study of 10 schools, this latest edition of the Survey of Community College Outcomes covers 121 schools across five states: Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. How we’re changing the narrative on community college success: ?? The Richmond Fed success rate takes a broader, more flexible approach to defining success - one that recognizes students’ diverse educational goals. ?? Our survey broadens the scope of what is measured - looking at non-credit, dual enrollment and part-time student success - which are important and unique ways community colleges support their students’ career training. ?? In 2024, the Richmond Fed conducted a District-wide wraparound services survey to identify what services are offered by community colleges to support their students’ needs, how they are funded and what gaps still exist. To view this year’s survey results, visit: https://bit.ly/4fRoVAc

Our boards of directors in Richmond, Baltimore and Charlotte help us fulfill our public service mission and stay connected to the communities we serve. Learn more about how directors are chosen below, and read more about them here: https://bit.ly/3Z5PI6q

Did you know that initial jobless claims are one of the most highly watched indicators for the labor market? In case you missed it, a recent Macro Minute, the weekly blog that explores the numbers behind the headlines on the national economy, highlighted how jobless claims provide the most up-to-date snapshot about recent trends in separations and have trended upwards over the last seven months. Nathan Robino, a research associate, compares the increase in claims to similar periods since the 1960s to contextualize where we are now and what we might expect moving forward. Read about these trends and the future outlook here: https://bit.ly/3Xxr8t8 #MacroMinute #Employment #LaborMarket

In recent years, community banks have explored innovative approaches to provide high-quality financial services and products to their customers, often partnering with nonbank companies, including financial technology companies, or fintechs, to access new technologies and resources. In such partnerships, a fintech provides its end customers with access to a bank’s products and services. While these partnership arrangements vary, they commonly facilitate deposit-taking, payments services, and lending activities. This article provides an overview of the Federal Reserve’s supervisory approach to complex bank–fintech partnerships and discusses common risk factors associated with them: https://bit.ly/3Z5W5Xf