More stories

  • in

    Job creation roars back in October as payrolls rise by 531,000

    Nonfarm payrolls increased by 531,000 in October, beating the estimate of 450,000.
    The unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, a new pandemic low and better than expectations.
    Wages rose 0.4% for the month and were up 4.9% from a year ago.
    Leisure and hospitality led job creation, followed by professional and business services and manufacturing.

    The U.S. jobs market snapped back in October, with nonfarm payrolls rising more than expected while the unemployment rate fell to 4.6%, the Labor Department reported Friday.
    Nonfarm payrolls increased by 531,000 for the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 450,000. The unemployment rate had been expected to edge down to 4.7%.

    Private payrolls were even stronger, rising 604,000 as a loss of 73,000 government jobs pulled down the headline number. October’s gains represented a sharp pickup from September, which gained 312,000 jobs after the initial Bureau of Labor Statistics estimate of 194,000 saw a substantial upward revision in Friday’s report.

    The numbers helped allay concerns that rising inflation, a severe labor shortage and slowing economic growth would tamp down jobs creation.
    “This is the kind of recovery we can get when we are not sidelined by a surge in Covid cases,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director at job placement site Indeed. “If this is the sort of job growth we will see in the next several months, we are on a solid path.”
    The critical leisure and hospitality sector led the way, adding 164,000 as Americans ventured out to eating and drinking establishments and went on vacations again as Covid numbers fell during the month. For 2021, the sector has reclaimed 2.4 million positions lost during the pandemic.
    Other sectors posting solid gains included professional and business services (100,000), manufacturing (60,000), and transportation and warehousing (54,000). Construction added 44,000 positions while health care was up 37,000 and retail added 35,000.

    Wages increased 0.4% for the month, in line with estimates, but increased 4.9% on a year-over-year basis, reflecting the inflationary pressures that have intensified through the year. The average work week edged lower by one-tenth of an hour to 34.7 hours.
    The unemployment rate drop came with the labor force participation rate holding steady at 61.6%, still 1.7 percentage points below its February 2020 level before the pandemic declaration. That represents just shy of 3 million fewer Americans considered part of the workforce and reflective of ongoing supply concerns.
    “While the strength of employment was an encouraging sign that labor demand remains strong, labor supply remains very weak. The labor force rose by a muted 104,000, which is not even enough to even keep pace with population growth,” said Michael Pearce, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

    At the same time, the survey of households showed job holders rising by 359,000, leaving the employment level about 4.7 million below its pre-pandemic level.
    A separate measure of unemployment that incudes discouraged workers and those holding part-time jobs for economic reasons fell to 8.3% from 8.5%. That rate was 7% prior to the pandemic.
    The report comes amid heightened concerns about the state of the labor market, particularly a chronic shortage that has left companies unable to fill positions to scale back production and cut hours of operation.
    Companies have been increasing wages and adding other incentives as the working share of the potential labor force operates well below its pre-pandemic level.
    Since adding more than a million jobs in July, the labor market had slowed sharply through the rest of the summer, with sizeable letdowns in August and September as economists greatly overestimated growth in both months.
    However, revisions showed that the numbers for those months weren’t quite as dismal. Along with the boost from September’s initial count, August’s final reading came up another 117,000 to 483,000.
    Concerns linger, though, that the U.S. economy is slowing. Gross domestic product increased just 2% in the summer months, falling short of even the reduced expectations for gains during the pandemic-era recovery.
    Recent data, though, has shown a progressive drop in weekly jobless claims, the result in good part from enhanced unemployment benefits expiring. Data Thursday showed productivity is running at a 40-year low and the trade deficit notched another record high, passing $80 billion for the first time.
    Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve said job growth is strengthening enough for the central bank to begin cutting its monthly bond purchases, a cornerstone of its efforts to boost the economy during the pandemic. However, Chairman Jerome Powell stressed that the picture must continue to improve before the Fed starts raising interest rates.

    WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

  • in

    Workers' Pay Is in a Tug of War With Inflation

    American workers are taking home bigger paychecks as employers pay up to attract and retain employees. But those same people are shelling out more for furniture, food and many other goods and services these days.It is not yet clear which side of that equation — higher pay or higher prices — is going to win out, but the answer could matter enormously for the Federal Reserve and the White House.There are a few ways this moment could evolve. Wage growth could remain strong, driven by a tight labor market, and overall inflation could simmer down as supply chain snarls unravel and a surge in demand for goods eases. That would benefit workers.But troubling outcomes are also possible, and high on the list of worries is what economists call a “wage-price spiral.” Employees could begin to demand higher pay because they need to keep up with a rising cost of living, and companies may pass those labor costs on to their customers, kicking off a vicious cycle. That could make today’s quick inflation last longer than policymakers expect.The stakes are high. What happens with wages will matter to families, businesses and central bankers — and the path ahead is far from certain.“It’s the several-trillion-dollar question,” said Nick Bunker, director of research for the hiring site Indeed.Inflation-Adjusted Wages and SalariesOver the past five years, wages are up sharply in leisure and hospitality even after adjusting for inflation. During the pandemic, total private wage growth has struggled to keep up with prices.

    .dw-chart-subhed {
    line-height: 1;
    margin-bottom: 6px;
    font-family: nyt-franklin;
    color: #121212;
    font-size: 15px;
    font-weight: 700;
    }

    Cumulative Change in Employment Cost Index Wages and Salaries From 2016
    Note: Adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index.Source: Bureau of Labor StatisticsBen Casselman and Jeanna SmialekFor now, wage growth is rapid — just not fast enough to keep up with prices. One way to measure the dynamic is through the Employment Cost Index, which is reported by the Labor Department every quarter. In the year through September, the index’s measure of wages and salaries jumped by 4.2 percent. But an inflation gauge that tracks consumer prices rose by 5.4 percent over the same period.A different measure of pay, an index that tracks hourly earnings, did rise faster than inflation in August and September after lagging it for much of the year.And an update to that gauge, set for release in the jobs report on Friday, is expected to show that wages climbed 0.4 percent in October, which is roughly in line with recent monthly price increases. But the data on hourly earnings have been distorted by the pandemic, because low-wage workers who left the job market early in 2020 are now trickling back in, jerking the average around.The upshot is that the tug of war between price increases and pay increases has yet to decisively swing in workers’ favor.Whether wage gains eventually eclipse inflation — and why — will be crucial for economic policymakers. Central bankers celebrate rising wages when they come from productivity increases and strong labor markets, but would worry if wages and inflation seemed to be egging each other upward.The Federal Reserve is “watching carefully,” for a troubling increase in wages, its chair, Jerome H. Powell, said on Wednesday, though he noted that the central bank did not see such a trend shaping up.Recruiters do report some early signs that inflation is factoring into pay decisions. Bill Kasko, president of Frontline Source Group, a job placement and staffing firm in Dallas, said that as gas prices in particular rise, employees are demanding either higher pay or work-from-home options to offset their increased commuting costs.“It becomes a topic of discussion in negotiations for salary,” Mr. Kasko said.But for the most part, today’s wage gains are tied to a different economic trend: red-hot demand for workers. Job openings are high, but many would-be employees remain on the labor market’s sidelines, either because they have chosen to retire early or because child care issues, virus concerns or other considerations have dissuaded them from working.Emily Longsworth Nixon, 27 and from Dallas, is one of Mr. Kasko’s employees. She tried to recruit a woman to an executive assistant position at a technology company that would have given her a $30,000 raise — and saw the candidate walk away for a counter offer of no additional pay but three work-from-home days each week.Understand the Supply Chain CrisisCard 1 of 5Covid’s impact on the supply chain continues. More

  • in

    U.S. Economy Added 531,000 Jobs in October

    The American economy added 531,000 jobs in October, the Labor Department said Friday, a sharp rebound from the prior month and a sign that employers are feeling more optimistic as the latest coronavirus surge eases.Economists polled by Bloomberg had been looking for a gain of 450,000 jobs. The unemployment rate declined to 4.6 percent, from 4.8 percent.The October gain was an improvement from the 312,000 positions added in September — a number that was revised upward on Friday.Hiring has seesawed this year along with the pandemic, especially in vulnerable sectors like hospitality and retail, where workers must deal face to face with customers. White-collar employees have fared better, since many can work remotely.Some employers are complaining of a shortage of workers, as many people remain on the sidelines of the job market. The labor force participation rate — the share of the working-age population employed or looking for a job — was flat in October.In theory, the demand for workers should be drawing more people into the labor force, but the participation rate is nearly two percentage points below where it was before the pandemic. Early retirements have been a factor.A federal supplement to unemployment benefits expired in early September, and experts are watching whether the end of that assistance — and a depletion of savings accumulated from other emergency programs — increases the availability of workers.So far, those effects have been muted, as health concerns and child care challenges have continued to affect many families. At the same time, the labor shortage has given workers a measure of leverage they’ve not experienced in recent years.“For the last 25, maybe 30 years, labor has been on its back heels and losing its share of the economic pie,” said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “But that dynamic is now shifting.”Supply chain problems are another headache for employers. Automobile manufacturers have been particularly hurt by a shortage of semiconductors, while many companies are dealing with rising prices for raw materials and transportation.The Commerce Department reported last week that the economy grew by 0.5 percent in the third quarter, compared with 1.6 percent in the second quarter. Economists attributed the slowdown to the resurgent pandemic and the supply chain holdups.Still, there are reasons to be optimistic. The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that it would begin winding down the large-scale bond purchases that have been underway since the pandemic struck, signaling that it considers the economy healthy enough to be weaned from the extra stimulus.“The labor market is tight,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco. “Consumers are in good shape, and the willingness to spend is certainly there.” More

  • in

    Federal Reserve Announces Plan to Slow Bond Buying Program

    The Federal Reserve is dealing with high inflation at a time when millions of workers remain on the job market’s sidelines. Wednesday’s announcement that it will slow bond purchases is a step toward more normal monetary policy.Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, laid out a plan to slow the asset-buying program as the economy continued to heal from pandemic disruptions and inflation remained sharply elevated.Sarahbeth Maney/The New York TimesThe Federal Reserve on Wednesday took its first step toward withdrawing support for the American economy, saying that it would begin to wind down a stimulus program that’s been in place since early in the pandemic as the economy heals and prices climb at an uncomfortably rapid pace.Central bank policymakers struck a slightly more wary tone about inflation, which has jumped this year amid booming consumer demand for goods and supply snarls. While officials still expect quick cost increases to fade, how quickly that will happen is unclear.Fed officials want to be prepared for any outcome at a time when the economy’s trajectory is marked by grave uncertainty. They are not sure when prices will begin to calm down, to what extent the labor market will recover the millions of jobs still missing after last year’s economic slump, or when they will begin to raise interest rates — which remain at rock-bottom to keep borrowing and spending cheap and easy.So the central bank’s decision to dial back its other policy tool, large-scale bond purchases that keep money flowing through financial markets, was meant to give the Fed flexibility it might need to react to a shifting situation. Officials on Wednesday laid out a plan to slow their $120 billion in monthly Treasury bond and mortgage-backed security purchases by $15 billion a month starting in November. The purchases can lower long term interest rates and prod investors into investments that would spur growth.Assuming that pace holds, the bond buying would stop altogether around the time of the central bank’s meeting next June — potentially putting the Fed in a position to lift interest rates by the middle of next year.The Fed is not yet saying that higher rates, a powerful tool that can swiftly slow demand and work to offset inflation, are imminent. Policymakers would prefer to leave them low for some time to allow the labor market to heal as much as possible.But the move announced on Wednesday will leave them more nimble to react if inflation remains sharply elevated into 2022 instead of beginning to moderate. Many officials would not want to lift interest rates while they are still buying bonds, because doing so would mean that one tool was stoking the economy while the other was restraining it.“We think we can be patient,” Jerome H. Powell, the Fed’s chair, said of the path ahead for interest rates. “If a response is called for, we will not hesitate.”Congress has given the Fed two jobs: achieving and maintaining stable prices and maximum employment.Those are tricky tasks in 2021. Twenty months into the global coronavirus pandemic, inflation has shot higher, with prices climbing 4.4 percent in the year through September. That is well above the 2 percent price gains the Fed aims for on average over time.At the same time, far fewer people are working than did before the pandemic. About five million jobs are missing compared to February 2020. But that shortfall is hard to interpret, because businesses across the country are struggling to fill open positions and wages are quickly rising, hallmarks of a strong job market.For now, the Fed is betting that inflation will fade and the labor market will lure back workers, who might be lingering on the sidelines to avoid catching the coronavirus or because they have child care or other issues that are keeping them at home.“There’s room for a whole lot of humility here,” Mr. Powell said, explaining that it was hard to assess how quickly the employment rate might recover. “It’s a complicated situation.”Officials have already been surprised this year by how much inflation has surged and how long that pop has lasted. They had expected some run-up in prices as the cost of dining out and air travel bounced back from pandemic-lockdown lows, but the severity of the supply chain disruptions and the continued strength of consumer demand has caught Fed officials and many economists by surprise.In their November policy statement, Fed officials predicted that this burst of inflation would fade, but they toned down their confidence on that view. They said previously that factors causing elevated inflation were transitory, but they updated that language on Wednesday to say that the drivers were “expected to be” transitory, acknowledging growing uncertainty.“Supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic and the reopening of the economy have contributed to sizable price increases in some sectors,” the statement added.The Fed is willing to tolerate a temporary bout of quick inflation as the economy reopens from the pandemic, but if consumers and businesses come to expect persistently higher prices, that could spell trouble. High and erratic inflation that persists would make it hard for businesses to plan and might eat away at wage increases for workers who lack bargaining power.“We have to be aware of the risks — particularly now the risk of significantly higher inflation,” Mr. Powell said. “And we have to be in position to address that risk should it create a threat of more-persistent, longer-term inflation.”Understand the Supply Chain CrisisCard 1 of 5Covid’s impact on the supply chain continues. More

  • in

    Fed Plans to Slow Economic Aid Amid Inflation Concerns

    Whether it’s reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, Times Video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world.Whether it’s reporting on conflicts abroad and political divisions at home, or covering the latest style trends and scientific developments, Times Video journalists provide a revealing and unforgettable view of the world. More

  • in

    John Deere Says Contract That Workers Rejected Was Its Final Offer

    One day after workers at the agriculture equipment maker Deere & Company voted down a second contract proposal, the company said Wednesday that the proposal was its best and final offer and that it had no plans to resume bargaining.The rejection of the contract by roughly 10,000 workers extended a strike that began in mid-October, after workers based primarily in Iowa and Illinois voted down an earlier agreement negotiated by the United Automobile Workers union.The company confirmed its position in an email after it was reported by Bloomberg. A U.A.W. spokesman said only that the union’s negotiating team was continuing “to discuss next steps.”Marc A. Howze, a senior Deere official, said in a statement Tuesday night that the agreement would have included an investment of “an additional $3.5 billion in our employees, and by extension, our communities.”“With the rejection of the agreement covering our Midwest facilities, we will execute the next phase of our Customer Service Continuation Plan,” the statement continued, alluding to Deere’s use of salaried employees to run facilities where workers are striking.Many workers had complained that wage increases and retirement benefits included in the initial proposal were too weak given that the company — known for its distinctive green-and-yellow John Deere products — was on pace for a record of nearly $6 billion in annual profits.According to a summary produced by the union, wage increases under the more recent proposal would have been 10 percent this year and 5 percent in the third and fifth years. During each of the even years of the six-year contract, employees would have received lump-sum payments equivalent to 3 percent of their annual pay.That was up from earlier proposed wage increases of 5 or 6 percent this year, depending on a worker’s labor grade, and 3 percent in 2023 and 2025.The more recent proposal also included traditional pension benefits for future employees and a post-retirement health care fund seeded by $2,000 per year of service, neither of which were included in the initial agreement.Chris Laursen, a worker at a John Deere plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, who was president of his local there until recently, said he voted in favor of the new agreement after voting to reject the previous one.“We have the support of the community, we have the support of workers all around the country,” Mr. Laursen said. “If we turned down a 20 percent increase over a six-year period, substantial gains to our pension plan, I’m afraid we would lose that.”But Mr. Laursen said he still had concerns about the vagueness of the company’s commitment to improving its worker incentive plan, and such concerns appeared to weigh on his co-workers, 55 percent of whom voted to reject the newer contract.Another Iowa-based worker, Matt Pickrell, said that some co-workers skeptical of the second proposal had expressed a desire for a larger initial increase than the 10 percent the company offered.Mr. Pickrell said that he, too, had opposed the initial agreement but had voted in favor of the more recent one because of the improvements in retirement benefits.Larry Cohen, a former president of the Communications Workers of America, said the second “no” vote could indicate that members felt that the strike was working and that further gains were possible, despite the company’s declaration that it was finished bargaining.“They’re saying what they believe — their feelings are hurt,” Mr. Cohen said of Deere. “But what are they going to do about it? They’re not going to get the workers back.”Mr. Cohen said that Deere employees were among the relatively rare group of workers in the United States able to bargain on a companywide scale and that that, along with their stature in the communities where plants are situated, gave them considerable leverage.The work stoppage at Deere was part of an uptick in strikes around the country last month that also included more than 1,000 workers at Kellogg and more than 2,000 hospital workers in upstate New York.Overall, more than 25,000 workers walked off the job in October, versus an average of about 10,000 in each of the previous three months, according to data collected by researchers at Cornell University. More

  • in

    What Jerome Powell Didn’t Do: Lay the Groundwork for Higher Rates

    He said high inflation was mostly a result of pandemic effects like supply network disruptions, a problem he thinks the Fed can’t fix.The real news out of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday was not in what it did, but in what Chair Jerome Powell didn’t do.The thing that the Fed’s policy committee did — announce that the central bank would gradually wind down its economy-stimulating program of buying bonds — was highly telegraphed and comfortably in line with investors’ expectations.The thing that Mr. Powell didn’t do was give any hint that persistently high inflation in recent months was leading him to rethink his patient approach to raising the Fed’s interest rate target. Rather, he repeated his longstanding belief that high inflation was mostly caused by disruptions in global supply networks and other ripple effects of the pandemic — problems that the Fed can’t do much about.It is a delicate moment. President Biden must decide whether to reappoint Mr. Powell to a second term leading the Fed. High inflation is causing economic discontent for Americans, according to surveys, and helping to drag down the president’s approval ratings. Global bond markets have been gyrating amid uncertainty about whether the era of ultralow interest rates may be coming to an end.On interest rates, Mr. Powell rejected the thinking of leaders at several other leading central banks and of a handful of his own colleagues. They think that excess demand in the economy is a big part of the inflation problem and that rate increases would help address it — and that current high inflation could become ingrained in economic decision-making, with long-lasting consequences.If he had expressed more alarm about those inflationary pressures, it would have been a signal that the Fed might act to raise rates more abruptly than it once planned. The Bank of Canada, the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Bank of England have recently done just that. Several Eastern European central banks are going a step further, aggressively raising rates to try to combat inflation (including a 0.75-percentage-point rate increase by the Polish central bank on Wednesday).Mr. Powell himself has essentially conceded in recent appearances that surging prices due to supply disruptions are on track to last longer than he expected. He said in late September that it was frustrating that supply chain bottlenecks weren’t improving and might be getting worse, and said this would hold inflation higher for longer than the Fed had thought.But he was steadfast on Wednesday in not suggesting that those developments were a reason to accelerate the Fed’s interest rate hike plans. He suggested those would need to wait until the tapering of bond purchases was complete and until Fed officials concluded the economy had achieved maximum employment.“We understand the difficulties that high inflation poses for individuals and families,” Mr. Powell said Wednesday. But he continued: “Our tools cannot ease supply constraints. Like most forecasters, we continue to believe that our dynamic economy will adjust to the supply and demand imbalances, and that, as it does, inflation will decline to levels much closer to our 2 percent longer-run goal.”With language like that, he was declining to embrace the use of “open-mouth policy,” or of essentially trying to assuage inflation fears by using more specific language to suggest the Fed had a hair-trigger readiness to take immediate action to head off higher prices.He appeared to be applying the lessons of the 2010s labor market in setting the central bank’s course. Over that decade, unemployment kept falling lower, with participation in the work force rising higher than many analysts had thought plausible. With hindsight, the Fed may have erred by raising interest rates prematurely, slowing that process of labor market improvement.In a 2021 context, that means allowing more post-pandemic healing of the labor market before assuming, for example, that many of the Americans who currently say they are not in the labor force will return as public health conditions improve.“There’s room for a whole lot of humility here as we try to think about what maximum employment would be,” Mr. Powell said. The last economic cycle, he said, showed that “over time you can get to places that didn’t look possible.”Understand the Supply Chain CrisisCard 1 of 5Covid’s impact on the supply chain continues. More

  • in

    The Fed holds rates near zero yet some borrowing costs are already on the rise

    The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it would keep its overnight lending rate near zero for now.
    As the central bank starts to taper its emergency stimulus efforts, consumers will see interest rates begin to rise.
    Mortgage rates are already higher.

    Even though the Federal Reserve didn’t raise its benchmark rate Wednesday, the days of low rates are clearly numbered.
    Reports of hotter-than-anticipated inflation have paved the way for the central bank to unwind last year’s bond buying. While the Fed said that interest rates will stay near zero for now, the tapering of bond purchases is seen as the first step on the way to interest-rate hikes.

    That will inevitably impact the rates consumers pay.
    In fact, rates are already rising for long-term borrowing costs, said Yiming Ma, an assistant finance professor at Columbia University Business School. “Likely that’s going to continue as the implementation starts actually happening.”
    More from Personal Finance:Where to get the best rates on your emergency savingsNow you can buy now, pay later for almost everythingHow to tackle holiday gift buying with fewer deals
    The federal funds rate, which is set by the central bank, is the interest rate at which banks borrow and lend to one another overnight. Although that’s not the rate that consumers pay, the Fed’s moves still affect the borrowing and saving rates they see every day.
    Since the start of the pandemic, the Fed’s historically low borrowing rates have made it easier to access cheaper loans and less desirable to hoard cash.

    Once the central bank starts to reel in its easy money policies, consumers may need to work a little harder to protect their buying power.  
    Here’s a breakdown of how it works.

    Borrowing rates will rise

    For starters, when the Fed starts to slow the pace of bond purchases, long-term fixed mortgage rates will edge higher, since they are influenced by the economy and inflation.
    The average 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage has already risen to 3.24%, according to Bankrate.
    “If they haven’t already, now could still be a good time for some borrowers to consider refinancing,” said Jacob Channel, senior economic analyst at LendingTree. “Even though rates are rising, they’re still relatively low from a historical perspective.
    “Nonetheless, the window for refinancers to get a sub-3% rate is rapidly closing.”
    Currently, refinance borrowers with a good credit score can expect to see APRs around 2.85% for a 30-year, fixed-rate refinance loan, and 2.31% for a 15-year, fixed-rate loan, according to a Lending Tree.

    Once the federal funds rate does rise, the prime rate will, as well, and homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages or home equity lines of credit, which are pegged to the prime rate, could also be impacted.
    But it isn’t all bad news, Channel added. “Higher rates could help dampen demand for homes somewhat, which could result in less dramatic home price growth, homes staying on the market for longer, and fewer bidding wars,” he said.
    “This could actually make it easier for some homebuyers — like first-time buyers — to enter into the housing market.”
    And it may still be a while before rates for home equity lines of credit, which stand at 3.87%, move up from the current “very low, very attractive levels,” added Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
    “It will take a succession of interest rates hikes before the accumulative effect on rates diminishes the appeal.”

    Rates won’t stay this low forever. That makes it really important for people with credit card debt to focus now on paying it down as soon as possible.

    Matt Schulz
    chief credit card analyst for LendingTree

    Anyone shopping for a car will see a similar trend with auto loans. The average five-year new car loan rate is as low as 3.87%, while the average four-year used car loan rate is 4.52%, according to Bankrate.
    Other types of short-term borrowing rates, particularly on credit cards, are also still cheap by historic standards.
    Credit card rates are now 16.31%, down from a high of 17.85%, according to Bankrate, but most credit cards have a variable rate, which means there’s a direct connection to the Fed’s benchmark, and when the Fed raises short-term rates, credit card rates will follow suit.
    “Rates won’t stay this low forever,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst for LendingTree. “That makes it really important for people with credit card debt to focus now on paying it down as soon as possible.”
    The good news here is that zero-percent balance transfer offers are back in a big way, he added. Cards offering 15, 18 and even 21 months with no interest on transferred balances are easy to find and banks are eager to lend, Schulz said.

    Savers get squeezed

    Savers also need to take action.
    The Fed has no direct influence on deposit rates; however, those tend to be correlated to changes in the target federal funds rate. As a result, the savings account rate at some of the largest retail banks is hovering near rock bottom, currently a mere 0.06%, on average.
    Because the inflation rate is higher than savings account rates, the money in savings loses purchasing power over time. 
    In addition, even when the Fed does raise it benchmark rate, deposit rates are much slower to respond.

    “Based on history from 2015 to 2017, no significant increase in savings account rates are anticipated until the Fed is well underway with its rate hikes,” said DepositAccounts.com founder Ken Tumin.
    “For consumers that are depositing, it’s good to pay attention to other options, Columbia’s Ma advised, such as “money market funds, bond mutual funds or bond ETFs.”
    There are alternatives out there that will require taking on more risk but come with increasing returns, she said.
    “This is especially important to consider as we enter a rate hike cycle at some point.”
    Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

    WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More