News Briefs

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (“JOLTS”), a closely-watched measure of labor market health, indicated there were 6.0 million job openings at the end of October, down slightly from September.  Hires rose to 5.6 million and the quits rate held steady at 2.2%.  BLS Report

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Treasury Department says that the Republican economic agenda will generate enough economic growth to completely pay for the proposed tax cuts. Treasury officials say that the proposed tax plan will increase long-run annual growth to 2.9% from 2.2%, which is far above the modest increase that Congress’ official scorekeeper, The Joint Committee for Taxation, expects the tax plan to generate. WSJ

According to The Wall Street Journal, the White House is planning to roll out an infrastructure plan in January that will direct $200 billion or more of federal money to various projects. Infrastructure spending is seen as having broad-based, bipartisan support, though some worry that spending hawks in Congress may be unwilling to accept further widening of the federal deficit, especially if the current tax reform bill passes. WSJ