Positive July Job Report

Jobs report from July confirms what the white house has been saying, we are in fact not entering or existing in a recession. The unemployment rate is currently 3.5%, back to the pre-pandemic rate. It is in fact the lowest unemployment rate since 1969. Further evidence lies in the little wage growth surge, up .5% since last month. The highest job gains industry was hospitality, coming in hot with 96,000 new jobs. Even health care, where folks are widely known to be very burnt out showed growth with 70,000 new jobs on the books. Retail jobs also increased 22,000. We’re hearing a lot these days about retail shopping trending towards online, but new staff in stores are still hopping on board!

The Monday Team would like to remind folks this means rates will not being going down. Prospective buyers gotta strike while the irons hot! There’s no time like the present, and the competition will be back in droves, swooping your number 1 pick right out from under your nose.

Now that we’ve gotten real with ya’ll, something totally different!

Late summer days can have some of the most perfect afternoons and evenings for languishing in the grass. Languishing is sweet and all, but some of us need to occupy the ole’ mind to keep our Chilin sesh chill.

In comes awesome summer book lists! So many tantalizing stories of intrigue, great escapes into great reads, a break from the grind to live in a different story.

Kerri Naslund-Monday is reading Unusually Excellent: The Nine Skills Required for the Practice of Great Leadership by John Hamm. John Hamm is a top leadership expert in Silicon Valley. His mini summary of the book on good reads is this; “The business environment may change, but no management trend can displace these core laws of excellent leadership.”

Kerri is also reading Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley and she describes it as “a local Oakland author who paints an amazing picture of poverty, sex work, and corrupt police in a poetic, innocent way.”

Lots of Monday team members are reading cool stuff these days.

Zenaida is listening to The power of more the ultimate guide to happiness and success by Ed Amulet on audio book. She is also reading The millionaire real estate investor by Gary Keller. She says it reads like a textbook, but its so good!

Sandra is reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. ”Its a really great book that’s helping me to reframe the way I think about productivity. She’s also reading Face it by Debbie Harry “because I’ve always been beyond obsessed with Blondie.”

Ann is reading The enlightened gardener and How to sell 100 houses a year.

Zoe is rereading Spirit walker by Hank Wesselman.

Karyn is reading Night crawling by Leila Motley (18 year old writer, from Oakland!). It’s a novel that takes place in Oakland. Author went to OSA!!

Melissa Kirsch of the New York Times is recommending The Long Secret, the sequel to Harriet the spy.

For a less light, but more immersive read, Kirsch advises to reach for Knocking Myself Up; A Memoir of Infertility. There is also a new biography out, she suggests we read about Buckminster Fuller.

The options are endless, and it is worth taking the time to treat yourself, and enjoy these months of summer coming to a close.