Latest news with #Terrazas
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tariffs and Social Security Cuts Among Boomers' Top Worries: 2 Ways To Prepare For the Worst
Many boomers feel their finances are on shaky ground, even if they have the stability that typically comes with being a homeowner. A recent report from Point, a home equity investment platform, found that nearly half (47%) of homeowners over 60 say they feel less financially secure than they did a year ago, and 48% are uncertain about their financial situation over the next 12 months. Find Out: Read Next: Among U.S. homeowners ages 60 and older, 79% are at least somewhat concerned about the possibility of a recession in the next 12 months and 73% believe tariffs will make their financial situation worse in the next 12 months. In addition, among homeowners of all ages who currently collect or plan to collect Social Security in the next 12 months, 73% are concerned about the potential of benefit cuts. Here's a closer look at whether these concerns are warranted, and what boomers can do now to financially prepare for the worst. While tariff policies are constantly in flux, increased costs have already been rolling out. 'When and where we've seen the announced tariffs stick, consumer prices have started to increase,' said Aaron Terrazas, economist for Point. 'That reduces the real purchasing power of anyone who buys those goods.' This can be particularly difficult to navigate for retirees who are living on a fixed income. Learn More: The majority of homeowners ages 60 and above are concerned about the possibility of a recession, the report found — and it's not just boomers who have these worries. 'That is also the majority consensus among Wall Street economists,' Terrazas said. 'Of course, recessions are notoriously difficult to predict and over the past few years we've seen consistently elevated recession fears that have not yet come to pass. But even if they are just fears that never materialize, recession worries can dampen spending and investment decisions leading to slower growth, even if it falls short of an economic contraction.' President Donald Trump has promised he would not make cuts to Social Security, but many beneficiaries are still concerned these could be on the table. 'Congress is still negotiating the details for the federal budget and possible tax legislation, so we don't yet know what changes might be included,' Terrazas said. 'In the past, direct cuts to the benefits that current Social Security recipients get are rare; more often we have seen cuts to the benefits that future recipients can expect. 'The fact that so many current recipients are concerned speaks to fragile household finances after years of high inflation and, more recently, a decline in the stock market.' With so many unknowns, it's best to err on the side of caution and take proactive steps now to protect your finances from whatever may be on the horizon. Terrazas said the first step boomers should take is to seek professional advice. 'First and foremost, it's important to work with a financial advisor as you approach retirement to ensure that you have sufficient income if a recession were to hit or if inflation were to spike during the initial years out of the workforce,' he said. In addition, boomers may want to reevaluate their spending. 'It may make sense to temporarily reduce spending.' Terrazas said, 'and access liquid savings to avoid drawing down asset wealth when the stock market is momentarily down.' More From GOBankingRates 10 Genius Things Warren Buffett Says To Do With Your Money This article originally appeared on Tariffs and Social Security Cuts Among Boomers' Top Worries: 2 Ways To Prepare For the Worst
CBS News
08-04-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Small businesses say they fear Trump's tariffs: "A devastating impact"
Many U.S. small businesses could face a financial crunch as President Trump's reciprocal tariffs take effect on Wednesday, slapping new import duties on products from almost every nation across the globe. Some small businesses told CBS News they're worried about the impact from the sharp increase in tariffs that they'll soon be required to pay to the federal government. After paying the levies, they said they'll be left with two choices: raise the prices they charge customers or swallow the costs and take a financial hit. Small businesses, generally defined as enterprises with fewer than 500 employees and revenue of less than $7.5 million, account for almost half of all private-sector employment in the U.S. But they're also more vulnerable to tariff costs because they don't have the deep pockets or financial flexibility of large businesses, noted Aaron Terrazas, an economist at Gusto, which provides payroll and HR services to small and midsize businesses. "For many small businesses, this is a one-two punch," Terrazas said. "They are getting higher prices from suppliers, and their customers are more skittish" just as they're grappling with heavier tariffs. Among those businesses reckoning with the added costs is Simplified, an online stationery business that has manufactured its colorful planners in China since 2013. Its owner, Emily Ley, told CBS News that the new reciprocal tariffs "will have a devastating impact" on her business, costing her an additional $630,000 in fees over the next year. On April 3, Ley filed a lawsuit alleging Mr. Trump has exceeded his authority in dictating the import duties. Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to impose tariffs and regulate foreign commerce. "This additional tax burden is catastrophic to our business," Ley added. "We've already raised our prices as much as possible to absorb previous tariff increases. There's a limit to how much we can increase prices before we price ourselves out of the market." To cope with the costs, she said the company is reducing salaries and scaling back expansion plans. Mr. Trump has said tariffs will revive American manufacturing by incentivizing both domestic and foreign companies to build factories in the U.S. But small businesses, which typically operate on thin margins, generally don't have the capacity to quickly shift their supply chains or build local production facilities given the higher cost of labor in the U.S. Even large businesses that have the financial heft to move its plants back to the U.S., such as Apple, would require years to build a factory in the U.S., noted Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in an April 8 research note. "Maybe over time, we will build a supplier base, but that takes time," Terrazas said. "But in the interim there is this transition period that is very perilous for small businesses." Not all small businesses can wait that long. Alyssa Chambers, the founder of NOVA Essence Inside Out, which makes candles and other wellness products, said she plans to absorb the cost of tariffs applied to the Chinese-made candle jars and waxes she relies on — for now. Chambers said she would reassess her business' pricing toward the end of summer and depending on the state of the economy. For small businesses, buying from American manufacturers isn't really an option, Chambers added, noting that a U.S.-made candle jar costs about $12 each. By contrast, she can buy a 15-pack of jars made in China for about $20. Although she expects that price to rise to about $40 after the tariffs hit home, it's still cheaper than buying domestically. Other small businesses simply don't have the option of buying from domestic manufacturers, said Matt Weyandt, co-founder of chocolate maker Xocolatl. Because cocoa is grown near the equator, very little of it can be grown in the U.S., he noted. "Despite that, we'll now be paying an additional 10% or more for all of our cocoa beans on top of their already elevated prices," Weyandt said. "This is not going to bring cocoa farming jobs to the U.S. or increase American manufacturing — it's just going to hurt American chocolate manufacturers." To be sure, there are some small businesses that could continue to thrive even with higher tariffs Terrazas said. That includes domestic food manufacturers or health care businesses that don't rely on imports, such as elder or child care companies. Small businesses are coping with the tariffs just as Americans are growing more pessimistic about the economy, with consumer confidence slumping to a 12-year low last month. "In the long term, American consumers are really remarkable. But in the short term, it's hard," said Kevin Klowden, an economist with the Milken Institute, a think tank. "It is definitely different because this is an intent to force a structural shift." But, Klowden added, Mr. Trump is doing so "by significantly putting pressure on the cost structure of the entire system." Whether inflation-weary consumers will accept price hikes from businesses remains to be seen. If the tariffs aren't reduced, inflation could pick up this year, reaching as high as 4% by year end , up from about 2.8% currently, according to Wall Street economists. "This is a moment of elevated risk for the economy," Terrazas said. Emily Pandise and Jo Ling Kent contributed to this report.
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Despite weak freight market, trucking jobs soared in March
Truck transportation jobs in March rose the most in a month since the beginning of 2022. The increase of 9,600 jobs that went along with a larger-than-normal increase in nonfarm payrolls for the country (up 228,000 jobs) was the largest since an increase of 10,400 jobs in January 2022. That month was nearing the end of what is generally considered the strongest freight market in recent history. This month's increase came during a time when the most optimistic voices are hoping for an improvement by the end of the year. The monthly numbers released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics also reported a revision of January and February numbers that resulted in the February figure actually being down 2,800 jobs between January and February, larger than the original end result is that at 1,525,900 jobs, employment in truck transportation is less than it was a year ago (when it was 1,531000 jobs), but the highest since April 2024. The record employment in the sector was 1,587,900 jobs in July 2022, which would have been after the peak activity in the post-pandemic freight boom. Meanwhile, warehousing and storage jobs went in the opposite direction, falling to 1,822,400 jobs, down from 1,831,800 jobs, a drop of 9,400 jobs. There also were downward revisions for January and February, which means that what a month ago was a report of 1,840,500 warehouse jobs in January now is a total more than 18,000 jobs below that. The transportation sector as a whole posted job gains of 22,900 jobs, accounting for more than 10% of the 228,000 increase in jobs reported in nonfarm payrolls. Much of that came from yet another huge increase in the couriers category, which was up 15,800 jobs. Revisions in January and February numbers mean that between those two months, 24,300 jobs were added in the couriers of certain labor disputes is believed to be a big reason for the gain in the courier numbers. Aaron Terrazas, an economist who studies labor markets with a particular emphasis on transportation, said the overall increase in transportation numbers was about double what it normally is. The gains were 'overwhelmingly driven by robust hiring among package delivery services for the fourth month in a row.' Terrazas also noted the big jump in truck transportation in a market dogged by pessimism. 'The strong reported hiring in the freight sector feels very contrary to industry sentiment of continued softness in the freight market, perhaps reflecting temporary activity as businesses tried to front-run new tariffs,' he wrote in an email to FreightWaves. Mazen Danaf, an economist with Uber Freight (NYSE: UBER), described the increase in truck transportation jobs as 'counter-seasonal and counter-cyclical.' 'This uptick might represent a delayed hiring response following January's temporary spot market tightening due to weather disruptions, which preceded an anticipated collapse similar to the previous year,' he said in an email to FreightWaves. 'However, given the persistent signs of stagnant demand, I do not expect this trend to persist.' Manaf went so far as to already project a drop in employment this month. In other highlights from the monthly report: Rail jobs totaled 153,600, a decline of 700. After revisions in January and February numbers, rail employment is down 1,100 jobs in just two months, a large decline in a sector where changes are generally just 100-200 at a time, up or down. The hourly earnings of nonsupervisory employees in truck transportation has now been above $30 per hour for four consecutive months. That data is on a one-month lag and climbed to $30.50 in February, up from $30.09. The previous high was $30.16 in December, so this latest figure is a significant rise given that it is usually measured in much smaller increments. More articles by John Kingston Clash on legal status of California transportation waivers highlighted at TCAATBS says independent drivers earned a little more in '24 but drove more as well Truck driver triumphs at Supreme Court in case involving marijuana testing The post Despite weak freight market, trucking jobs soared in March appeared first on FreightWaves.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Eye doctors see problems with bill expanding optometry in NM
House Bill 36, would expand the scope of practice for optometrists in New Mexico and awaits action from the governor. (Photo by Leah Romero / Source NM) A proposal to allow optometrists to perform several in-office surgeries passed the Legislature and awaits the governor's possible signature, but the New Mexico Academy of Ophthalmology has raised concerns about 'serious risks' to patients. House Bill 36, sponsored by Majority Whip Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-Albuquerque), would expand the Optometry Act and how the 'practice of optometry' is defined. An optometrist holds a doctorate in optometry, or primary eye care, while an ophthalmologist is a medical doctor with surgical training. Currently, certified ophthalmologists are the only eye professionals who can perform laser procedures in New Mexico. If enacted, the bill would allow licensed optometrists to perform various laser-involved procedures to treat conditions like clouding or glaucoma, and also require the state Board of Optometry to create standards for training in laser procedures before an optometrist could begin performing them on patients. An analysis of the bill notes that expanding optometrists' scope of practice could help address the shortage of healthcare providers in New Mexico qualified to care for patients with such needs. The American Academy of Ophthalmology reported that the number of ophthalmologists in the U.S. is predicted to decrease by 12% between 2020 and 2035, while demand for these medical professionals is expected to increase by 24%. The report notes that rural areas in particular do not have adequate access to ophthalmologist services. Rep. Luis Terrazas (R-Santa Clara), a co-sponsor of the bill, told Source NM he was asked by a local optometrist in his area of rural southwest New Mexico to support the expansions proposed in the bill. Terrazas said he was told that a large number of the optometrist's patients were being referred to care in Tucson due to long wait times. 'Not every family can afford to travel out of town,' Terrazas said. He told Source that he has experienced five eye surgeries himself that required trips to Phoenix. He said as long as the state continues to struggle with access to health care, the longer patients will continue looking for care elsewhere. However, an analysis by the Department of Health reported that the expansion of 'laser authority' for optometrists in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Kentucky has not proven to increase access to procedures in a significant way and actually poses 'serious concerns' for the safety of patients, particularly due to a lack of standardized guidelines for training in laser surgery. The DOH report says, 'there is a risk of inconsistent preparation among providers performing these procedures. This inconsistency could lead to an increase in vision loss, blindness, and negative patient outcomes.' 'Lowering the quality of care is not a valid workforce strategy for rural New Mexico,' Rebecca Leenheer, board president of New Mexico Academy of Ophthalmologists, said in a statement. 'Every New Mexican—regardless of ZIP code—deserves the highest level of health care, including qualified, highly trained medical doctors performing delicate eye surgery.' Terrazas emphasized to Source NM that HB36 does not require optometrists to offer laser procedures, but gives them the choice for what fits best with their practice and their patients' needs. 'I'm not a doctor, but if I was, I would make sure that I had all the proper training that I feel that I need so that I can provide a good service, right, and safe for my patient,' he said. 'I would assume that most doctors are going to do that because they don't want to have any malpractice problems.' Hochman-Vigil told Source NM that if the bill is enacted, New Mexico would be the 13th state to expand the scope of practice for optometrists, and that medical malpractice insurance has not gone up in those states. She added that optometrists are ethically obligated to consult with or refer patients to ophthalmologists in more complicated cases. 'This actually frees up the ophthalmologist to be able to concentrate on those more complicated cases, so that the optometrist can kind of spend more time working on just your more typical patient care,' Hochman-Vigil said. 'I really feel like, especially for how common these types of procedures are, the argument that it's unsafe [is] just not founded because these types of procedures are performed thousands of times daily and some of them usually take no more than two or three minutes.' HB36 passed the Legislature and is waiting for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's signature, but the academy is asking the governor to veto the bill. Jodi McGinnis-Porter, a spokesperson for the governor, told Source that 'the bill will be evaluated in its entirety when it makes it up [to the governor's office] and she has until April 11 to act on the bill.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The higher your degree, the longer you'll be unemployed
For Ron Sliter, getting a master's degree seemed like a path to job security. After spending nearly two decades in the military, including eight tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he attended graduate school with the help of the GI Bill and landed a job in IT administration. He looked forward to climbing the corporate ladder and enjoying a long, successful career in the civilian world. Then, in January 2023, he got laid off. Since then, he's applied to thousands of roles — to no avail. After more than two years, he's still unemployed. The whole experience, he says, feels like "being caught in the middle of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.'" "It's disheartening," he tells me. "They sell you on the dream, you fight for the dream, and you come back to take advantage of the dream that you fought for. And you realize it doesn't exist." Sliter is part of a sudden spike in the number of highly educated professionals who are struggling to find a job — any job. According to government data analyzed by the economist Aaron Terrazas, professionals with advanced degrees who are looking for work find themselves stranded on the unemployment line for a median of 18 weeks — a jobless spell that has more than quadrupled over the past two years. And in a strange twist, job searches are now taking more than twice as long for educated elites than they are for workers who never went to college. At the moment, the higher your degree, the longer it will take for you to find a job. It's not news that we're in the midst of a sharp downturn in tech and finance — one that has hit highly credentialed professionals especially hard. I've been calling it a white-collar recession, assuming that it's temporary. It's normal, after all, to experience dips in the job market. There have been plenty of times over the years when Ph.D. holders faced longer job searches than high school graduates. But whatever the ups and downs, education — particularly an advanced degree — has generally provided a good buffer against financial insecurity. Lately, though, I've started to wonder if what we're seeing in the job market is a sign of something deeper. What if Sliter's protracted spell of joblessness is an early warning signal — an indication that the economy is undergoing a fundamental shift? What if, going forward, education no longer provides a path to economic security the way it once did? "For 40 years, we've been talking about how more education leads to better labor market outcomes," says Terrazas, the former chief economist for Glassdoor. "Suddenly, that feels like it's changing." And the shift, he warns, could herald a profound "moment of dislocation" for today's white-collar professionals, just as blue-collar workers faced a seismic reckoning in the wake of globalization. "What the early 2000s were for manufacturing workers, I worry that the mid-2020s are going to be for knowledge workers," Terrazas says. "American manufacturing workers were told they were highly productive until global trade opened up, and then suddenly that changed. I worry that we're in a comparable moment for knowledge workers. They were told they were the most productive workers in the world. Suddenly that's being undermined." Education has long served as a ticket to a better, more secure life. But rarely has it mattered more than in recent decades, with the rise of robots and computers and the internet. The more schooling you had, the more likely you were to survive the sudden technological disruption. Between 1980 and 2009, the economists Daron Acemoglu and David Autor found, wages increased modestly for those with a bachelor's degree, soared for those with an advanced degree, and tumbled for high school dropouts. Economists gave the phenomenon an awkward name: skill-biased technological change. In plainspeak: Get more degrees or you're screwed. Education was the one thing that kept you safe in an increasingly cutthroat economy. To secure their futures, an unprecedented number of young Americans enrolled in graduate schools, taking out big loans that they believed would yield even bigger payoffs down the road. Since 2000, the numbers of Americans with master's degrees and doctorates have more than doubled — while the ranks of those without a high school diploma shrank. But then, over the past few years, the demand for super-educated professionals suddenly took a deep dive. A variety of factors have combined to alter the white-collar landscape. The first was the pandemic-driven shift to remote work. No longer limited by the constraints of geography, American companies realized they could hire abroad, giving them access to a larger and cheaper pool of highly trained professionals. Suddenly, homegrown computer scientists, product managers, and data scientists — long treated as rare diamonds worthy of their high salaries — seemed more like overpriced commodities compared with their counterparts overseas. Another factor has been the big push among corporate recruiters to de-emphasize formal credentials in the hiring process, a trend known as "skills-based hiring." Some employers no longer list degree requirements in job postings; others have added the qualifier "or equivalent experience." That's giving people without the extra schooling a chance at landing the most coveted white-collar jobs — while undercutting the advantage long enjoyed by the advanced-degree holders. And then there's AI. As I've written before, studies show that chatbots and other AI tools are already providing a boost to those with the least skill and experience, while doing little to help high performers — the very people who likely got an advanced degree to hone their skills. What's more, early estimates suggest that in the long run, AI is most likely to displace white-collar professionals, while leaving most blue-collar jobs intact. And besides, getting an MBA or some other advanced degree didn't exactly prepare anyone for the sudden emergence of ChatGPT. The faster technology changes, the faster your fancy degree is likely to feel outdated. Terrazas found that the median age for those experiencing long-term unemployment is now 37 — meaning you don't have to be a boomer to feel like technology has passed you by. "What we think of as 'old' is a lot younger now," Terrazas says. "With the accelerated technical frontier, what it means to be out of date is creeping downward." That's what happened to a millennial I'll call Tara. After earning her MBA from Cornell University in 2021, she was confident that all the hard work — and expense — was going to pay off. With a job offer from Amazon in hand, she moved across the country to Seattle, excited to live on her own for the first time and begin a brand-new career as a product manager. Whatever happened with the job, she figured there would always be plenty of companies eager to hire someone with a business degree from a top school. Then Tara got laid off during the tech downturn in November 2023 — and hasn't been able to land a new role. Unemployed for 14 months and counting, she's applied to something like 650 jobs. "With every passing month, as my stress levels went up, my search criteria expanded," she tells me. "I'm stumped at just how hard it's been." The prospects for educated elites are so bleak that some have taken to hiding the credentials they worked so hard to earn. Professionals with advanced degrees aren't just mired in longer job searches — they're facing what feels like a vicious circle: The longer they're out of work, the more obsolete their skills become, which in turn makes it even harder to find a job. As they grow increasingly dejected, some opt for lower-paying roles; others give up altogether. Economists refer to this as "scarring," and it's one of the reasons they worry so much about long-term unemployment. It doesn't just hurt the people who can't find work. It also hurts the broader economy. The prospects for educated elites are so bleak that some have taken to hiding the credentials they worked so hard to earn. Scott Catey, a policy director who has both a JD and a Ph.D., says he sometimes leaves out the doctorate in job applications, to avoid being viewed as overqualified. Michael Borsellino, who has a doctorate in urban studies, started listing his degree as being in "social sciences," to make it sound applicable to a wider range of jobs. The goal, he says, is "not to pigeonhole myself." Ever since the Industrial Revolution, the modern economy has been dividing up the workforce into ever-narrower specializations. A driving force in higher education, in fact, was to cultivate the sort of hyper-niche expertise that the marketplace demanded. But Terrazas says we're now starting to see the darker side of becoming really, really good at one thing. "Specialization can create productivity-enhancing high returns," he says. "But it can also create obsolescence." Borsellino, who eventually landed a role at LinkedIn after a nine-month search, doesn't think his Ph.D. proved to be an asset. "If it did help, I feel like I wouldn't have been unemployed for as long as I was," he says. "I don't know if it was a drain, but I don't think it was the end-all, be-all that I grew up believing it would be." If he were thinking about getting a doctorate today, he's not sure he'd do it. "I think we're at this point where experience is valued so much more that it's really, really difficult to justify doing the degree." Advanced-degree holders, of course, continue to be the economy's overwhelming winners. Most of them are gainfully employed, with salaries that are typically far higher than anyone else's. And it's possible that the current hiring obstacles facing educated professionals will prove to be a temporary blip, just one more twist in a deeply strange pandemic-era economy that we've failed to understand time and time again. But if I'm right, and this turns out to be the beginning of an enduring trend, it will force us to rethink our long-standing assumptions about education and employment. If even a Ph.D. can't keep us safe from economic catastrophe, what will? That's the question that I find deeply unsettling, especially as we face the uncertainty and upheaval of the AI revolution. Yes, it's always been unfair that those who can afford to keep going to school face better prospects than their less-educated peers. But at least there was some kind of road map to financial security, a rule of thumb that told you how to get to higher ground. There was comfort in that predictability. Catey, the JD-Ph.D., counts himself among the lucky ones. While he continues his search for a full-time job, he's been able to land enough freelance work to get by. And he doesn't have to worry about paying off his student loans, because they were forgiven by the Biden administration. But being without a full-time job for almost a year wasn't exactly the life he envisioned back when he was slogging his way through grad school. "Credentialing seemed to me a very solid way to make sure I had a reliable future of employment in front of me," he says. "That's not how it turned out." Andy Kiersz contributed analysis. Aki Ito is a chief correspondent at Business Insider. Read the original article on Business Insider
