Assorted Links Friday

Homebuyers hit with another blow: The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage -- the most common type of mortgage in the US -- has surged an incredible 24% in the past four weeks alone.

Labor force participation: The labor-force participation rate ticked up to 62.4% in March and is now up 0.7 ppt over the past six months.

Big cities are in their prime. In fact, their best days may be yet to come.

STEM immigration is critical to American national security:

Average hourly earnings, 2000-February 2022:

Real average hourly earnings in private nonfarm payroll sector, production and nonsupervisory workers, in 2020$, deflated by CPI (blue), by PCE deflator (brown), both on log scale.

Inflation since 1960:

Employment in six of fourteen supersectors have surpassed pre-pandemic levels as of March:

50% of Canadians live south of the red line: