On the jobs report
The jobs report for October just came out.聽 Headline numbers:
Payrolls up 80,000.聽 That鈥檚 below the average of the past year鈥攁bout 125K/month.聽聽 Once again, private sector jobs went up (104K); public sector, down (-24K).
Unemployment ticked down to 9%.
Revisions to Sept and Aug added about 100K on payrolls, cumulatively, to those months.
We鈥檙e just very much stuck in a slog here.聽 The private sector is expanding at a snail鈥檚 pace, while state and local governments continue to cut jobs.聽 It鈥檚 a vicious cycle where weak employment growth is leading to weak wage* and income growth and that鈥檚 dampening consumption and GDP growth.聽 And as long as consumers remain strapped, it鈥檚 hard for me to see why corporations sitting on trillions in cash reserves would invest here as opposed to expanding, emerging economies elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Congress remains in a fantasyland, wallowing in a well-deserved 9% approval rating and blocking every idea that might actually stimulate some job growth.
* year-over-year, wages were up 1.8%.聽 Consumer prices are rising, as of聽September, by 3.9% meaning real wages鈥搕he buying power of聽paychecks鈥揳re falling.
