Today's Top Stories From the Breitbart News Desk

There were more than ten million open jobs on the last day of June, according to the latest Job Opening and Labor Turnover Survey. The record high number would be extraordinary in any economic environment, but it is particularly notable because there were also around 9.5 million Americans unemployed in June. Very high levels of job openings and heightened unemployment are not typically things we see at the same time.

The labor market appears to be considerably tighter—meaning, workers are scarcer—than the official 5.4 percent unemployment rate would indicate. One sign of this showed up in the monthly consumer survey undertaken by the New York Fed. The survey asks respondents to gauge the probability of losing a job. Typically, the mean probability is around 15 percent. In June, it fell all the way down to 10.7 percent, the lowest in records that date back to 2013.

That same survey also showed that medium-term inflation expectations are at record highs. Interestingly, a generational rift has arisen when it comes to inflation. Prior to the pandemic, Americans of all ages had broadly similar expectations for inflation, although older Americans tended to expect a bit more than the youngsters. Now the median expectation for those over 59 is for 5.9 percent inflation this year and 5.0 over the next three years. For those under 40, the median expectation is for four percent inflation in the 12-month window and three percent in the medium term. That is a very large gap in expectations. Someone is going to be surprised a year from now.

Inflation fears hit shares of Darden—which operates the Olive Garden restaurants—hard on Monday after an analyst at ISI Evercore pointed out that the company is likely to get hit with much higher labor and materials costs. Olive Garden might have trouble passing on some of those costs given consumer expectations for where its meals should be priced. That produced a 4.5 percent decline in the stock. But don't feel too bad: year to date, shares are up nearly 19 percent. The reopening has been very good for Olive Garden—even if the price of dough for the breadsticks keeps climbing.

– Alex Marlow & John Carney
Breitbart News Network