PHOENIX — A recent jobs report surprised some economists cooling down talks of a recession.
Here in the Valley, a local insurance agency gave the workforce something to smile about with free professional headshots.
Inside Spce Coffee Friday afternoon, buying a drink came with an opportunity to put your best foot forward with a free professional headshot.
Cody Nesper waited to sip his chai tea until he showed off his pearly whites.
“When people are seeing me for the first time, I want them to know that I take myself seriously,” said Nesper.
The event was organized by Jose Perez, a local insurance agent who says these headshots are an investment in the community.
”If they do well, we do well. That has been our motto for the office. We believe when we’re there for our community, our welfare is in the community,” said Perez.
The need for a professional headshot in this economy is in demand after the recent jobs report.
The Labor Department indicated employers hired people for 339,000 jobs in May alone.
That number came as a sigh of relief for economists who anticipated far less.
”I think we’ll still continue to see the job growth, we’re seeing a lot of job growth in high-wage jobs here in Arizona,” said Luis Cordova, a senior economist for Rounds Consulting Group.
What also came as a surprise is the unemployment rate which rose from 3.4 to 3.7 percent.
Cordova attributes the increase partially to layoffs in the tech sector.
For the past 10 consecutive meetings, the federal reserve has raised interest rates in an effort to control inflation.
Cordova says another way to control inflation is through quantitative easing, meaning the Fed will take money out of the economy to slow it down.
“If the Fed does this too aggressively it could lead to a recession, based on how the fed has operated these past years, I don’t have much confidence in what they’ll do. So we could see a recession as early as next year,” said Cordova.
A recession is on hold, for now.
