Segments From This Episode

• Jobs, jobs, jobs

  by David Brancaccio

  The gold-standard reporters on hiring and unemployment don’t come out until tomorrow. But Today, we got a private-sector calculation on jobs numbers using from the payroll company ADP. Hiring was stronger than expected, with 164,000 more people getting paychecks in December. And yesterday, we learned that there were slightly fewer job opening posted nationwide in November. Diane Swonk, chief economist at the audit, tax and advisory firm KPMG, helps us put it all together.

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• Kicking the tires of car sales

  by Nova Safo

  Car and truck sales in America went up 12% last year, according to the latest data. That’s the biggest increase in more than a decade ‚ despite the fact that car prices and interest rates were both up.

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• How China's young, unemployed people are feeling

  Millions of young people in China are struggling to find a job amid that country’s economic downturn. More than one in five between the ages of 16 and 24 are jobless in China (although we can’t give you an official figure, because China has stopped releasing those statistics). Fixing the economy is one of of the biggest challenges for China in 2024. The BBC’s Laura Bicker reports.

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