New claims for unemployment drop to pandemic low for second week in a row
Americans filed 547,000 first-time unemployment claims last week, the Labor Department reported. That marked a pandemic low for a second week in a row.
Jobs preview from ADP predicts bad news in Friday’s official jobs report for February
Private employers added 117,000 jobs in February, according to today’s National Employment Report from ADP. The ADP report leads into Friday’s Labor Department report on the job market. The Labor Department report will include jobs gains or losses in the public sector that has been hit hard by the pandemic. Economists had projected that the ADP survey would show private payrolls adding 165,000 jobs in February.
U.S. economy adds just 49,000 jobs in January, below economist projections for 100,000 gain–and the economy is showing clear signs of stalling
The U.S. economy gave new signs that the recovery has stalled. Today, February 5, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added just 49,000 jobs in January. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the economy to add 100,000 jobs in the month. The government statisticians also revised downward the jobs performance of the economy November and December. In December the revised figures say, the economy lost 227,000 jobs rather than the initially reported 140,000. In November the economy created 72,000 fewer jobs than first reported.
Job disappoint for November, stocks don’t care
Th Standard & Poor’s 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the NASDAQ Composite all hit all time closing highs today. It’s enough to make you doubt that the U.S. economy added only 245,000 jobs in November. This was a huge miss on projections from economists the the economy would add 450,000 jobs. That projection would have itself been bad news since it would have confirmed trends that show the economic recovery losing momentum under the impact of the current surge in coronavirus infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. November was the slowest month for job growth since the pandemic shut down the economy in the spring.
New claims for unemployment move in the wrong direction
For the week ended November 14, 742,000 workers filed new claims for unemployment in regular state programs. That was an increase of 31,000 from the prior week. The increase was the first in five weeks.
Payroll gains for August come in as expected at solid 1.37 million, but pace of recovery continues to slow
The United States added 1.37 millions jobs in August, the fourth straight monthly gain. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected an increase of 1.35 million jobs. The official unemployment rate fell by more than expected by almost two percentage points to 8.4%....
Initial claims for unemployment drops below 1 million for last week
The number of workers applying for unemployment benefits from state unemployment programs fell below 1 million for the week ended August 8. At 963,000 the number was below the 1.18 million new claims for the week of August 1. Economists had expected initial claims of...
So why was Friday’s jobs report for July so worrying?
On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs in July. Not a bad number, on an absolute scale. 1.8 million jobs is a lot of jobs. And the total did beat economists' expectations by about 300,000 jobs. But... The total...
ADP private payrolls report foreshadows negative government July jobs report due Friday
The ADP Research Institute report on private payrolls doesn't always track with the government's monthly jobs report, but the trends usually matches up. Which argues that Friday's July jobs report will show that the economy and the labor market took a step backward in...
Less time than you think before the end of that $600 a week enhanced unemployment benefit
Glibly, I've been saying that the extra $600 a week in unemployment benefits in the coronavirus rescue package will end on July 31. That gives Congress a scant two weeks to act to renew the payments that have helped so many workers through the unemployment caused by...
What do you know? A rational stock market for a day!
Stocks refused to follow the headline job gains reported today--and instead focused upon the uncertainty in the economy looking forward as the re-opening economy gave off signs that the recovery might be about to stall--or even step backward. Even though the June jobs...
This is as good as the economy gets–for a while
The U.S economy added 4.8 million jobs last month in June. And the official unemployment rate fell to 11.1%. That's the good news. Unfortunately, the gains in jobs and the drop in unemployment are based on data from a survey that measured conditions in the week ended...Jim’s Stock Alerts
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