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The employment data from the BLS this morning shocked a lot of economists and writers because it came in much lower than expected. The consensus was for around 201,000 new jobs (February was +240,000), but the report came in at only 120,000. Immediately came the expected headlines: All of the above articles [...] Unemployment has been the devil in the economy: its persistence at a high level belies the argument that the US economy is in recovery. If the economy were recovering we should see steady increases in employment that indicate businesses feel confident enough to take on full-time workers. Demand for labor would first occur in manufacturing [...] Jobless insurance claims for the week of December 10 came in much better than expected at 366,000, 19,000 less than the week before: Back to back declines of 19,000 in initial jobless claims are signaling sudden strength in the labor market. Claims in the December 10 week came in at 366,000, far below expectations for [...] There was some better news on the unemployment situation today as the BLS reportedthat the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.6% from 9.0% in November. (See yesterday’s article, “Another ‘Unexpected’ Unemployment Report.”) The highlight numbers improved but if one digs a little deeper the overall jobs situation in America remains relatively unchanged. While the report [...] This week’s jobless claims report from the Department of Labor was largely unchanged: Initial jobless claims edged 6,000 lower in the October 15 week to 403,000, but the level is 3,000 higher than Econoday’s consensus estimate and the prior week is revised 5,000 higher to 409,000. Yet the trend is clearly if only marginally positive [...] |
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