Biden's 36-year-old economist has her eye on an equal recovery

In a one-bedroom apartment above a Washington neighborhood of bars, clubs and brunch spots, Janelle Jones is busy trying to fix the U.S. labor market -- one economic report and one Mario Kart race at a time.

The Biden administration appointed the 36-year-old as the Department of Labor’s chief economist, a little-known position that will influence the futures of millions of people.

In between wading through endless spreadsheets, enduring hours of video meetings and analyzing reams of economic data, she picks up the video-game controller to clear her head.

The first Black woman in the job, Jones is the economist for America’s workers at a time when 10 million are jobless and entire industries are hollowed out by the pandemic recession.

Raised in Ohio’s Rust Belt, graduating from college amid the 2008 financial crisis and now in Washington’s circle of power, she has intimate knowledge of the U.S. economy’s complex strata.

At: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-26/biden-economist-janelle-jones-has-her-eye-on-an-equal-recovery

Janelle Jones, chief economist at the Labor Department under President Joe Biden, with John Schmitt, an economist and vice president at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) - a mentor and someone she calls her “work dad.”

The 36 year-old Spelman College graduate is the first Black woman to hold the influential post.

“My role here will be to give a lens to union workers, low-wage workers, different types of workers who aren’t usually centered.”