New York Times (September 6)
“When the federal government last month reported a sharp decline in the nation’s hiring, President Trump dismissed the numbers, claiming without evidence that they were “rigged,” and then ousted the official responsible for producing them.” This month’s jobs report was even worse, confirming “the reality that Mr. Trump has been trying to avoid. The labor market is stalling—and the nation is facing real strains—under the weight of his economic agenda.” His administration will try to deflect, but “the numbers mostly reflect what Americans already know.” Consumer sentiment has weakened in anticipation of tariff-linked inflation while “surveys show that workers are worried about holding onto their jobs and pessimistic about their chances of finding a different one.”
Tags: Consumer sentiment, Federal government, Hiring, Inflation, Jobs report, Labor market, Rigged, Sharp decline, Stalling, Strains, Tariffs, Trump, Weakened, Workers, Worried
New York Times (August 5)
U.S. retail investors are “unsinkable” at the moment. “Economists were alarmed last week when President Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, after a weaker-than-expected jobs report.” Markets sneezed, then “largely shrugged it off, despite potentially disastrous long-term effects to assets like the dollar. One big reason: retail investors didn’t seem as concerned as economists.” Retail investors are fearlessly buying on dips and “emerging as a potent investing force beyond meme-stock booms.”
Tags: Alarmed, Assets, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Buying, Dips, Disastrous, Dollar, Economists, Fired, Investing force, Jobs report, Markets, McEntarfer, Retail investors, Trump, U.S., Unsinkable
Wall Street Journal (February 5)
“The January jobs report wasn’t as bad as the markets seemed to take it… But then it wasn’t stellar either.” New jobs didn’t rise as much as expected, but there were wage gains and the labor participation rate rose as well. “We’ll hope for the best,” though the “overriding problem continues to be a lack of business confidence and investment.” This “leads to slower growth, which gives the U.S. economy a lower margin for absorbing growth shocks from around the world.”
Tags: Confidence, Growth, Investment, Jobs report, Labor participation, Markets, Shocks, U.S., Wage gains
New York Times (July 4)
The U.S. jobs report brought welcome news: 288,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate hit 6.1%, the lowest since September 2008. “Behind the good news, however, there is still enormous slack in the economy. Human capital is being wasted. Economic ground is being lost, often irretrievably.”
Tags: Economy, Human capital, Jobs report, Slack, U.S., Unemployment rate
