A8
BUSINESS
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 12, 2019
‘Screen Time’
to keep up
with what’s on
East Oregonian
The East Oregonian
and its weekly affiliate the
Hermiston Herald will soon
introduce a brand new sec-
tion focusing on America’s
most popular pastime, screen
viewing.
Whether it is antenna,
cable, dish, or a variety of
streaming services like Net-
flix, Americans spend more
time viewing news and
entertainment on screen —
television, computer, smart
phone or tablet — than any
other activity besides work
and sleep, according to
recent survey data.
In response, the EO and
HH are launching “Screen
Time,” a new weekly tab-
loid section that will pub-
lish each Wednesday in both
newspapers.
“Given the viewing hab-
its of modern Americans
on both big screen and an
array of mobile devices, it
became clear to us that it
was high time to reinstate a
screen viewing guide,” said
Publisher Chris Rush. “It
has been several years since
we last published such a
product.”
However, unlike previous
publications, this will be no
ordinary TV guide.
“Screen Time will not
only include network listings
for Broadcast, Cable, Dish
and DTV, but also Streaming
highlights, movies, sports,
and even a weekly listing of
cooking shows,” said Rush.
“We will also include enter-
tainment features, puzzles,
and more in a full-color
24-page package.”
The new section will be
included as part of the reg-
ular subscription price of
both the East Oregonian
and Hermiston Herald and
will be supported with local
advertising.
The launch date for
Screen Time is planned for
Feb. 13, to continue each and
every Wednesday in the EO
and HH.
Star Tribune/Leila Navidi
Government workers, American Federation of Government Employees union members and members of supporting local unions pose for a group photo
during the rally to highlight the effect of the federal shutdown Thursday in Minneapolis.
Shutdown makes it harder to say how economy is doing
By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON — The par-
tial shutdown of the U.S. govern-
ment has begun to make it harder
to assess the health of the econ-
omy by delaying or distorting key
reports on growth, spending and
hiring.
Government data on home con-
struction and retail sales, for exam-
ple, won’t be released next week
because staffers who compile those
reports have been furloughed. The
retail sales report provides a snap-
shot of consumer spending, which
fuels more than two-thirds of the
economy. With Macy’s and Kohl’s
having said Thursday that their
holiday sales were weaker than
expected, a broader gauge of retail
spending would have provided
important clarity.
In addition, the next report on
the economy’s overall growth, set
for Jan. 30, won’t be released if the
shutdown remains in effect. Even if
the government has fully reopened
by then, federal workers won’t
likely have had enough time to pro-
duce the scheduled report on the
nation’s gross domestic product.
Not all agencies are closed. Con-
gress approved funding last year
for the Labor Department, so the
government’s next monthly jobs
report will be released as scheduled
on Feb. 1. But it’s unclear how long
the department will be able to issue
jobs reports — the most closely
watched barometer of the economy
— after that.
Though the economy remains
healthy in most respects, there
are rising concerns that growth
could slow or even stall in com-
ing months. The trade war between
the United States and China, which
has helped depress global growth,
is likely slowing business invest-
ment. The stimulus from the
Trump administration’s tax cuts is
expected to fade.
And borrowing costs have risen
since the Federal Reserve raised
short-term interest rates four times
last year. Before rebounding this
week, stock markets had plum-
meted roughly 16 percent from
their peak Oct. 2.
Many economists increasingly
see the shutdown, should it persist,
as a drag on the economy. Michael
Feroli of J.P. Morgan has down-
graded his forecast for growth
in the first three months of 2019
because of the shutdown. He now
expects the economy to grow at a 2
percent annual rate, down from his
previous estimate of 2.25 percent.
The shutdown is costing the
economy about $1.2 billion a week,
according to Standard & Poor’s.
Some of that loss will be regained
after federal workers eventually
receive back pay for the time they
missed. But many government con-
tractors won’t be made whole. And
lost business — such as scheduled
hotel stays from trips to national
parks that won’t be taken — may
not be made up.
Fed officials are now stress-
ing their flexibility on rate hikes,
emphasizing that they will be
patient and their policy “data
dependent.” By this, the Fed means
that the government’s latest read-
ings on hiring, inflation and growth
will factor heavily in its rate deci-
sions. Yet much of that data will
now be unavailable — to the Fed
or anyone else.
“For us, one of the biggest
effects of the shutdown has been
around data,” Raphael Bostic, pres-
ident of the Fed’s Atlanta regional
bank, said Wednesday. “We’re
worrying about that.”
Even some reports that are
released on schedule are likely
to be distorted by the shutdown.
For example, the January jobs
report may show an artificially
high unemployment rate and low
employment figure. That’s because
up to 380,000 federal employees
who aren’t working or being paid
during the shutdown — but who
will return to work afterward —
could be counted as unemployed
for January.
If so, that would raise the unem-
ployment rate by 0.2 percent-
age point, estimated Ben Herzon,
an economist at Macroeconomic
Advisers, a forecasting firm.
And the monthly job count could
decline by 380,000 if the shutdown
continues through the end of Janu-
ary, Herzon said. That could push
the monthly job figure into nega-
tive territory.
If all the federal workers even-
tually receive back pay, as occurred
after previous shutdowns, then the
January jobs report would later be
revised to restore those 380,000
jobs, according to the Labor
Department’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics.
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