Employment Situation Report - Unemployment to 7.6%
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Unemployment soared to 7.6% in January, surpassing the consensus view for 7.5% (recently revised up from 7.4%), and up from December's recorded 7.2%. The unemployment rate has not been this high since 1992.
We lost a net of 598K nonfarm payrolls in January, above the 524K forecast by economists, according to Bloomberg's survey. Last month's jobloss total was the highest seen since 1974, a time period that produced difficulties many of us hoped we would never experience again.
The monthly pace of increase in average hourly earnings stuck at 0.3%, higher than the expected 0.2% rate. This pace is seen slowing in the months ahead, as companies fire higher paid employees and offer "packages" to early retirees. Indeed, we saw signs of this earlier this week, as unit labor costs rose slower than expected. Still, the broader service sector has been late in adjusting, which may explain the sticky "earnings" rate.
The average workweek also stuck at 33.3 hours. Another explanation for these "sticky" figures might be that we're reaching the limit for work shift reduction and the usefulness of part-time workers. Surely, through time the curve for this improvement should flatten out, but if it is already happening, then even tougher EPS reports lie ahead of us.
There is a video here that you may not be able to see from your vantage point. Simply click on the image below to see the Associated Press' coverage of the Employment Report.
Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. (Article interests: NYSE: RHI, NYSE: MAN, NYSE: KFY, AMEX: DIA, AMEX: SPY, Nasdaq: QQQQ, NYSE: NYX, AMEX: DOG, AMEX: SDS, AMEX: QLD, AMEX: XLF, AMEX: IWM, AMEX: TWM, AMEX: IWD, AMEX: SDK)
Unemployment soared to 7.6% in January, surpassing the consensus view for 7.5% (recently revised up from 7.4%), and up from December's recorded 7.2%. The unemployment rate has not been this high since 1992.
We lost a net of 598K nonfarm payrolls in January, above the 524K forecast by economists, according to Bloomberg's survey. Last month's jobloss total was the highest seen since 1974, a time period that produced difficulties many of us hoped we would never experience again.
The monthly pace of increase in average hourly earnings stuck at 0.3%, higher than the expected 0.2% rate. This pace is seen slowing in the months ahead, as companies fire higher paid employees and offer "packages" to early retirees. Indeed, we saw signs of this earlier this week, as unit labor costs rose slower than expected. Still, the broader service sector has been late in adjusting, which may explain the sticky "earnings" rate.
The average workweek also stuck at 33.3 hours. Another explanation for these "sticky" figures might be that we're reaching the limit for work shift reduction and the usefulness of part-time workers. Surely, through time the curve for this improvement should flatten out, but if it is already happening, then even tougher EPS reports lie ahead of us.
There is a video here that you may not be able to see from your vantage point. Simply click on the image below to see the Associated Press' coverage of the Employment Report.
Please see our disclosures at the Wall Street Greek website and author bio pages found there. (Article interests: NYSE: RHI, NYSE: MAN, NYSE: KFY, AMEX: DIA, AMEX: SPY, Nasdaq: QQQQ, NYSE: NYX, AMEX: DOG, AMEX: SDS, AMEX: QLD, AMEX: XLF, AMEX: IWM, AMEX: TWM, AMEX: IWD, AMEX: SDK)
posted by The Greek | 11:30 AM
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