Andy Bauer and John Bailey Jones discuss the factors that have shaped the demand for and supply of labor in recent years. They also talk about the barriers to labor force participation in Maryland, including lack of affordable child care and housing. Bauer is vice president and regional executive for the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Jones is vice president of microeconomic analysis.

Amanda Neitzel and Santiago Pinto report on the progress of students after the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, differences in the persistence of learning losses, and efforts to remediate these losses. Neitzel is an assistant research professor at the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University, while Pinto is a senior economist and policy advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

Andy Bauer and Renee Haltom talk about why consumers and businesses are telling a different story about the economy than the data suggests. They also discuss how economists reconcile such differences between sentiment and data. Bauer and Haltom are regional executives at the Richmond Fed.