Markets reacted wildly to the disappointing employment numbers released by the BLS yesterday. The Dow dropped 323 points to a new year low and mass panic about the stability of the recovery has ensued. Economist
reactions included disappointment and fear as the jobs report indicated an extremely weak recovery. The number looked at most was the monthly change in non-farm employment from the
establishment data. This data usually does generate excitement in the bond and stock markets because it provides the strongest evidence as to whether the economy is creating jobs. It is important to look at total private job creation as that is the best indicator of the economies true direction. If you looked at just the total non-farm you would have seen that
431,000 jobs were created in May. This is misleading however because 390,000 of those were jobs created by the government (temporary Census workers) and only 41,000 created by the private sector. This number was terribly disappointing because it was down from 218,000 private sector jobs created in April which indicates that the economy is slowing down. The markets should have also looked at the slowly increasing average weekly hours which signals that business may accelerate hiring in the distant future. Delving deeper we see that overtime hours are in fact rising and have broken the 4 hour mark in May. Rising overtime hours is a precursor to new permanent hires because overtime can be quite costly for a company. Traditionally less than 4 hrs a week for a few months has indicated that layoffs may increase while above 4.5 hours usually indicates that increased hiring we be coming around the corner. Another thing to look at is weekly claims for unemployment insurance which has shown an ability to predict when the economy approaches a turning point.
Initial unemployment insurance claims have been steadily falling since its peak in early 2009, but has seemed to level off around 460,000 which indicates that the economy is still weak and in danger of slipping back into contraction (possibly a double dip). A general rule of thumb is that when first-time claims stand above 400,000 for several weeks the economy may be in danger of slipping into a recession. A number below 400,000 suggests a recovery in underway and companies are laying off fewer workers.
The above graph shows the two recessions of the early 1980's where initial unemployment claims originally leveled off slightly above 400,000 before the economy slipped into another contraction. I have a feeling that maybe the same thing will happen in the most recent scenario given that the economy is still in a very fragile state.
Initial unemployment insurance claims have been steadily falling since its peak in early 2009, but has seemed to level off around 460,000 which indicates that the economy is still weak and in danger of slipping back into contraction (possibly a double dip). A general rule of thumb is that when first-time claims stand above 400,000 for several weeks the economy may be in danger of slipping into a recession. A number below 400,000 suggests a recovery in underway and companies are laying off fewer workers.
The above graph shows the two recessions of the early 1980's where initial unemployment claims originally leveled off slightly above 400,000 before the economy slipped into another contraction. I have a feeling that maybe the same thing will happen in the most recent scenario given that the economy is still in a very fragile state.
No comments:
Post a Comment