Since March 2020 we've seen the sharpest recession ever, with the fastest, largest loss of employment since records have been kept. Followed by the Federal Re- serve and Congress using their policy tools to try to ameliorate the situation. In this final, I would like you to interpret these events through the models presented in class. 1. In the labor market, show the evolution of job vacancies. First look at the first Spring/Summer of the Recession, then this Fall. There are several measures, but the main one from a government statistical agency is "job openings" from JOLTS and is available on FRED. What should the change in vacancies have predicted about labor force status flow rates (i.e. job separations, St, or the job finding rate, ft). Should you look at the number of vacancies, or is there a particular ratio that'd be more informative for flow rates? Can you find evidence on flow rates that’re consistent or inconsistent with that prediction? For this, you probably want to use FRED. I would like to see at least two charts from the data, one showing vacancies (or that special ratio involving vacancies) and another showing the flow rate that you think should be predicted by that vacancy data. You should also explain why they are related.
