Fed’s Waller, Williams Signal Upcoming Rate Cut

Article originally posted on HERE on September 6, 2024

Following a weaker-than-expected jobs report, two Federal Reserve policymakers on Friday said separately that the time has arrived to begin lowering the benchmark federal funds rate. Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller and New York Federal Reserve President John Williams each backed a reduction at the Federal Open Market Committee meeting later this month.

“Considering the achieved and continuing progress on inflation and moderation in the labor market, I believe the time has come to lower the target range for the federal funds rate at our upcoming meeting,” Waller said in prepared remarks at a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Similarly, Williams said Friday at the same event, “With the economy now in equipoise and inflation on a path to 2%, it is now appropriate to dial down the degree of restrictiveness in the stance of policy by reducing the target range for the federal funds rate.” He called the jobs report for August “consistent with what we’ve been seeing — a slowing economy and a cooling off in the labor market.”

Reuters reported that futures traders now assign a 77% probability to the Fed cutting the federal funds rate by 25 basis points at its Sept. 17-18 meeting. A larger cut than that would “send an incorrect signal to the market,” Eugenio Aleman, chief economist at Raymond James, told Reuters Friday.

AI Fuels Tech Talent Job Growth: CBRE

Demand for tech workers in artificial intelligence (AI) increased in 2023, despite slower tech talent job growth overall last year, according to CBRE’s annual Scoring Tech Talent report. For the first time in the report’s 11-year history, non-tech industries hired more tech employees than the tech industry.

“Increased demand for specialized skill sets in artificial intelligence has fueled tech talent job growth across all sectors,” said Colin Yasukochi, executive director of CBRE’s Tech Insights Center. “We anticipate more tech hiring to take place this year and into 2025 as companies further develop and adopt this technology.”

U.S. tech talent employment grew by 3.6% in 2023, down from 7.3% in 2022. The overall slowdown was accompanied by a shift in hiring momentum to non-tech employers, led by the professional & business services sector.

The San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and the New York metro area house the largest clusters for AI talent, accounting for 44% of the total 285,235 AI tech jobs domestically. In Canada, Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are the leading AI markets.

“YIGBY” Movement Supports Different Uses for Houses of Worship

The closures of large churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship continue to plague cities, especially if those buildings are in or near central business districts. A recent article on the Urban Land website pointed out, “Cities are struggling to address these large church closures, just as they must grapple with the demise of major department stores.”

The truth is there are more houses of worship than department stores. Additionally, the specific architecture of religious buildings can make conversion, reuse and adaptation more difficult. This doesn’t consider the community’s emotional feelings when a landmark sanctuary shuts down and is targeted for demolition or reuse.

The Urban Land article commented that the “Yes in God’s Back Yard” (YIGBY) movement could benefit from specific strategies, including the following:

Sell and relocate. Religious building owners can leverage their properties by selling them and then buying elsewhere. The First Church Miami UMC did just this, selling its location in downtown Miami for development and using the proceeds to buy back 25,000 square feet in the development to set up a coffee shop, gym, yoga room and worship center.

Close and donate. Sometimes, selling to another congregation can be a way to repurpose. The 50-member Twinbrook Baptist Church congregation in Rockville, MD, sold its building to the Hispanic congregation already meeting there. The Baptist church donated the money from the sale to help support area charities.

Join a developer. Partnering with a mixed-use developer can provide a solution, which Sharon United Methodist Church in Charlotte, NC, did. The partnership with Childress Klein resulted in luxury apartments, a hotel and a 35,000-square-foot worship center.

Rent underused facilities to others. Some religious organizations have benefitted from renting underused properties to the local community. Venuely in New York, ChurchSpace in Austin and thisspace in San Francisco help houses of worship offer these spaces to those who need them.

The article acknowledged that transforming underused religious and faith-based properties into different-use community hubs requires commitment from municipalities, developers, financiers, citizens and church members. However, “with a bit of faith, due diligence, and imagination, even a declining congregation can find a way to keep the spirit of their faith alive—even as the building itself shifts from its single-purpose origin to one serving the larger community in a variety of new ways,” the article said.