The Indicator podcast from NPR's Planet Money focused on the Labor Leverage Ratio, a measure of worker versus employer bargaining power developed by Aaron Sojourner, a senior researcher with the Upjohn Institute.
The ratio increases with the number of quits initiated by workers and falls with the number of employer-initiated layoffs and discharges.
While many people look to the quit rate alone to measure worker power, the Labor Leverage Ratio's pairing of the quit rate with firings and layoffs offers more insight into the broader economy, Sojourner wrote in a blog post with Emily DeVito of the Roosevelt Institute introducing the Ratio.
The Upjohn Institute plans to host Sojourner's monthly calculations of the Labor Leverage Ratio for different sectors and over time, to allow comparisons.