Member Economic Luncheon, May 2023

Finding it challenging to decipher our current labor market? In the past few years the U.S. labor market has drastically changed. From unemployment, early retirements, entrepreneurs, and new generations of workers, we face new landscapes when it comes to the work force. To grasp a better understanding of our current labor market, Dr. Pitts will be discussing the current issues, trends, and that there is hope for our labor markets.

M. Melinda Pitts - Research Center Director, Center for Human Capital Studies at Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Melinda Pitts is the research center director of the Center for Human Capital Studies (CHCS) in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Dr. Pitts is part of the applied microeconomics team. Her major fields of study are health and labor economics. She also contributes to the Atlanta Fed's macroblog, which provides commentary on economic topics, including monetary policy, macroeconomic developments, and the Southeast economy. Prior to joining the Bank in 2002, Dr. Pitts was an assistant professor of economics at Georgia State Universtiy, in Atlanta. She also worked as an assistant professor of economics at Salisbury State University in Salisbury, Maryland. 

Dr. Pitts has published in several journals, including Industrial Relations, the American Economic Review, Archives of Internal Medicine, and Research in Labor Economics. She is a member of the American Economic Association, International Health Economics Association, American Society of Health Economists, and the Society of Labor Economics. Dr. Pitts received her doctorate in economics in 1997 and her master's degree in economics in 1993, both from North Carolina State University. She received her bachelor of arts in economics in 1987 from Clemson University.