Residential building jobs, which track closely with home service employment and act as part of the training pipeline for new home service workers, are now up 4% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is roughly double the growth rate of employment in the sector in 2019 and is yet another example showing a…
Mischa Fisher, Chief Economist
Mischa Fisher is the Chief Economist for Angi Inc., including brands Angi (formerly Angie's List) and HomeAdvisor, powered by Angi. In this role, he leads market research including consumer spending behavior, labor market dynamics and residential housing trends.
Prior to joining Angi, Fisher was Chief Economist and economic policy advisor to the Governor of Illinois, where he oversaw the state agencies responsible for economic development, employment security, housing, and professional licensing. Previously, he was a Deputy Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and a Legislative Director for the United States Congress in Washington D.C, focusing on financial markets, infrastructure, and technology policy.
Fisher's research and insights have appeared in a wide range of popular and industry press including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Meet the Press, US News, Fox, and Forbes, among others. He has also spoken as an expert for elite institutions including the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the National Governors Association, Harvard University, and various industry specific organizations.
Fisher is an instructor in applied quantitative methods and statistics at Northwestern University, and a member of the American Economic Association and the National Association for Business Economics. He completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.
Recent Posts:
The Remarkable Gap Between Spending Growth and Employment Growth in Housing
February employment growth bounced back to a relatively strong 379,000 net new jobs gained month over month, and the national unemployment rate dropped to 6.2%, a level lower than the average post great recession recovery rate of 6.4%. However, despite these signs of labor market health, there is evidence that job growth is not happening…
How Did Remodeling Prices Change in 2020? The True Cost Report is Back
As the 2021 remodeling season gets underway, we’re relaunching our True Cost Report from years past, with a specific focus on 1) What common projects cost, 2) what causes total cost to rise or fall 3) how much you should expect costs to vary, and 4) how prices for the most common projects changed during…
Do We Need A Permanent Shift in Service Employment?
Employment in January grew by a disappointing 49,000 new jobs to a total of 142.6 million. Average monthly job growth absent a global pandemic would typically be 300-400% higher and average job growth at the start of the post pandemic recovery was over 2,000% higher, averaging over 1.5M jobs created each month for the first…
The Recovery Stalls, But Not For Housing
December was a disappointment for job growth across the economy with total payrolls dropping for the first time since the start of payroll employment recovery in May. The 1% job loss means the recovery stalled for much of the economy, just not for the residential construction sector, which now exceeds the level it stood at…
2020 State of Home Spending: The Year of the Home
Key Takeaways HomeAdvisor’s new 2020 State of Home Spending report is now available Spending increased across the board for improvement, maintenance, and repair driven in part by rising labor and supply costs Millennials are highest average spenders on home improvement, spending nearly $10,000 on home improvement projects this year How much more time did we…
The Skilled Trades in America: New Insights & Research
Today our research team released Skilled Trades in America, a report that examines America’s home service professionals and identifies the ways in which the industry can strengthen, grow, and diversify its labor force. The skilled trades, particularly those that work in home services, are an under studied profession in the United States. While we culturally…
What 2020 New Home Construction Could Tell Us About the 2021 Remodeling Season
Key Takeaways New home construction took a hit in April, with starts falling 30%. New home permits and new home starts lead new home completions by 6-12 months, which will potentially boost remodeling in 2021 as home prices are bid up due to a reduction in new post-COVID dwellings entering the market. The supply shortage…
Data Suggests Lower Income Households Prioritize Spending on Home Maintenance
Household spending on remodeling and maintenance expenditures changes as household income increases. Across all household income levels, maintenance spending increases by $2.29 for every additional thousand dollars of income, while remodeling spending increases by $25.44 for every additional thousand dollars of income. However, lower income households put a proportionally higher focus on maintenance spending for…
Home Services is a $500 Billion Dollar Industry
This year we conducted a deep dive into the home service market to develop our own estimate of the total market size, distinguish the home services market from home sales and new home construction, look at some of the fundamental drivers of market growth, and make some predictions about the future. Using our data…