The 2024 Economy And What’s Really Happening, With Rana Foroohar

A fresh New Year is here, and with it, many Americans are wondering what, exactly, is happening with the 2024 economy. The U.S. economy has continued to grow at a stronger pace than expected, which has made many of us wonder what, exactly, happened to all of that recession talk a year ago? At the same time, we’ve also had a spectacular recovery of women in the workforce —  75% of working-age women now have jobs. Plus, holiday spending late last year reached an all-time high, with Americans spending almost 10% more than they did last year on Cyber Monday. 

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And yet, Americans are still feeling anxious about the state of the 2024 economy and where things are headed. According to the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, Americans feel about as negative about the U.S. economy today as they did during stretches of the Great Recession. 

Rana Foroohar, Associate Editor at the Financial Times, says that the reason for this could be that “a lot of people get most of their money from a paycheck. The cost of living has been outpacing whatever small wage inflation we’ve seen, and we just haven’t seen a lot in the last couple of decades.”

She also talks about artificial intelligence (AI) and what we should expect as work becomes more automated in 2024. The 35%-40% of jobs in the world that are going to be most immediately affected by this are clerical, data entry, and legal services, Foroohar says. “These are things that many of us know women are doing. And so, this is something that we need to really make sure that we’re putting a floor under, and thinking about how to support people.”

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While we should all be thinking more thoughtfully about how AI will impact our jobs, Foroohar says that in the past few years, we’ve seen the power dynamic shifting more to the side of employees. She’s noticed “much more creative thinking on the part of workers about how do we divide the pie?” Her advice is to use this momentum and ask for what we deserve going into 2024: “We can protect ourselves, we can know our worth, we can start to make a case for it in our own minds to begin with, and then to our employers should that be necessary.”

In Mailbag, we hear from a listener who’s recently widowed and needs advice on where to start learning about personal finance, and we check in with someone with three jobs who has a question about withholding on her tax documents. In our money tip of the week, it’s #engagmentseason – should you be considering a lab-grown diamond?

MORE ON HERMONEY:

• AI Is Replacing Jobs Done By Women – Here’s What You Should Do Next
• HerMoney Podcast Episode 401: Financial Fallout And Our Economy 
• Your Finances Need A Check Up. Here’s How.

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