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Omicron warning, markets slump, and Powell and Yellen face Senate. Warning Omicron’s many mutations suggest a new vaccine will be needed, ac [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Omicron warning, markets slump, and Powell and Yellen face Senate. Warning Omicron’s many mutations suggest a new vaccine will be needed, according to [executives from vaccine manufacturer Moderna Inc.]( Meanwhile, there is still [not enough patient data]( to properly assess whether the new variant is predominantly mild, with public health experts saying studies are needed to the [gauge its virulence](. Yesterday President Biden said omicron is a “cause for concern, [not a cause for panic](” while urging people to get booster shots. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the new variant poses downside risks to employment and growth while adding to [uncertainty about inflation](. Those growth risks are clear as governments around the world continue to [tighten travel restrictions](. Slump Yesterday’s bounce in markets is rapidly fading in today’s trading as fresh worries about the efficacy of currently available vaccines push markets firmly back into risk-off mode. Overnight the MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.6% while the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index lost 1.5% to finish at its [weakest level since May 2016](. In Europe the Stoxx 600 Index had slid 1.2% by 5:50 a.m. Eastern Time with every industry sector falling, led by travel stocks. S&P 500 futures pointed to [plenty of red at the open](, the 10-year Treasury yield tumbled to 1.426% and gold rose while Bitcoin fell. Oil Crude’s respite from selling pressure yesterday is also proving to be short lived, with a barrel of West Texas Intermediate for January delivery trading close to $67.50 this morning, putting the commodity [on track for its worst month]( since since the early days of the pandemic. The Biden administration said it would [proceed with its plan]( to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve despite the recent slump in prices. [A positive start]( to talks aimed at reviving the nuclear deal with Iran, which may eventually see the country’s output return to international markets, is also adding to bearishness. All eyes now turn to the response from OPEC+ to the developments with delegates holding a technical meeting tomorrow ahead of the [production decision on Thursday](. Policy makers  Senate Banking Committee hears from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in the first of two days of congressional oversight hearings. Powell will no doubt be asked to respond to [comments in the prepared testimony]( on the risks posed by the omicron variant. Yellen, meanwhile, will likely emphasize the need to address the debt ceiling. Some kind of [stopgap funding bill]( is needed this week to avoid the start of government shutdowns. Speaking of policy makers, officials at the European Central Bank will come under increasing pressure to do something to tackle rising prices after this morning’s inflation reading came in at 4.9%, [faster than all forecasts](. Coming up... Third-quarter and September GDP data for Canada is at 8:30 a.m. U.S. September house price numbers are at 9:00 a.m. MNI Chicago PMI for November is at 9:45 a.m. Consumer confidence is at 10:00 a.m. Powell and Yellen begin their testimony at 10:00 a.m. Salesforce.com Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. and semiconductor maker GlobalFoundries Inc. are among the companies reporting results. What we've been reading Here's what caught our eye over the last 24 hours. - Manchin holds off committing to [moving Biden agenda this year](. - New people are coming to crypto — and they [may not like Bitcoin](. - How [crypto vigilantes]( are hunting scams in a $100 billion market. - Who is [Twitter’s new CEO]( Parag Agrawal? - When shipping containers are abandoned the cargo [becomes a mystery prize](. - China’s [rising ultra-nationalism]( complicates Xi’s climate ambitions. - Study suggests [the sun]( is a likely source of the Earth’s water.  And finally, here’s what Joe’s interested in this morning [On the latest Odd Lots podcast](, Tracy and I spoke with Thomas Lubik, a researcher at the Richmond Fed, about the weirdness in the labor market right now. Specifically we talked about why it is that there are an extraordinary number of job openings, despite employment levels remaining below pre-crisis levels. Why are there so many unfilled job openings, and why are there a vanishing number of people working? There are all kinds of theories for what's going on: skills mismatches, and regional mismatches, and maybe there's a bunch of people who have retired due to gains in stocks or crypto or the value of their home. Reliable childcare is likely a significant contributing factor. Anxiety about returning to the worksite in the middle of a pandemic. Maybe the pandemic is causing millions of people to just re-evaluate their life choices. Maybe people are sitting on pandemic savings that haven't been drawn down yet. Each of these ideas is supported by varying degrees of data and anecdata. Anyway, I have an idea: Let's just ask people. Let's do a big, recurring survey of workers and the non-employed, about how they're experiencing the job market right now. In fact, we should have been doing one for years already. Right now, the data releases we look at tend to fall into three categories: -- Government statistical collections. This is how we get the Unemployment Rate, or retail sales, or new home sales. Things like that. -- Business surveys: These include things like the Regional Fed Surveys and private surveys like the ISM or NFIB. These surveys tend to collect datapoints, though they're somewhat subjective about how business is going. What's working, what's difficult and so on. -- Consumer surveys. There are three big surveys of the general public that get tracked regularly: The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, and the Langer Consumer Comfort Index. Every one has the word "consumer" in the title. Because our surveys of the public all take the "consumer" frame, there exists a monthly datapoint on whether or not the the public plans to buy a vacuum cleaner in the next six months. The chart looks like this. That's great, and maybe that's a useful datapoint if you're a vacuum vendor. But regardless, what's missing is a thorough survey of the labor market. There are an infinite number of questions that can be asked. Are you working? If not, why not? Do you feel overqualified for your job? Are you happy with the number of hours you're working per week? (Would you like to work more or fewer hours?) Do you feel now is a good time to ask for a raise? Has an employer approached you for a job in the last month? Have your wages kept up with your cost of living? Are you unionized? Have you turned down a job in the last month? If so, how come? Do you perceive your workplace to be safe? How did you find your job? (Online, personal referral, in-store application, other etc.) Does your job match its initial distinction? Have you been offered a promotion in the last month? Would you move to a different part of the country for a job? Have you applied for a job for which you believe you were completely qualified, but never heard back? We could just go on and on. But the point is, it's kind of wild that we don't have a regular tracking of these key questions, but we do have a regular tracking of whether the public plans to buy a vacuum cleaner in the next six months. Again, no offense to the needs of vacuum cleaner vendors. Ideally a labor survey would give us a mix of hard data and anecdotal characterizations. One problem is that we have this information asymmetry where we get lots of anecdotes, but all from the business perspective. And businesses have been talking about a labor shortage for years and years now, since long before the pandemic. For example, there are four references to a [labor shortage in the January 2015 Beige Book](, a roundup of commentary from business contacts in the various Fed regions. [In the April 2013 Empire Fed Manufacturing Survey](, employers complained about being able to find punctual workers. Policy makers pay attention to this stuff, and say things like "our contacts are finding it hard to hire workers" and then conclude that we must be near full employment and so it's time to hike rates. Of course as we know, the unemployment rate fell massively from January 2015 until the eve of the pandemic. So all of this, while potentially interesting, needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Or at least it should be counterbalanced by the perspective of workers. At the end of our conversation with Lubik ([which you can read the transcript of here](), I argued that we need a Beige Book for workers. Whether it's the Fed itself, or a regional Fed bank, or a labor-focused version of the University of Michigan Survey. There's a big hole in who we hear from on a systematic basis right now, affecting our understanding of what's going on with the economy, with potential negative ramifications for policy decisions. Follow Bloomberg's Joe Weisenthal on Twitter [@TheStalwart]( Like Bloomberg's Five Things? [Subscribe for unlimited access]( to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close. Follow Us [Bloomberg.com 50% off offer]( Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Five Things - Americas newsletter. 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