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’The grimness of US unemployment
Sluggish growth — meet sluggish jobs. Initial jobless claims — the number of people who file for unemployment insurance each week – jumped by 19,000 to 479,000, its highest level since April.
Economists polled by Reuters had been expecting a decline to 455,000.
An initial double-dip indicator
Wells Capital Management wants everyone to forget Payroll Friday.
The number to focus on as an indicator for the shape of the US recovery, Wells’ chief investment strategist Jim Paulsen says, is not the monthly payroll figure,
The eurozone’s gone double-digit on unemployment
As Reuters reported on Wednesday:
The euro zone’s 10 percent jobless rate in February was the highest since August 1998 and in line with market expectations. A month earlier unemployment was at 9.9 percent.
A UK labour boom (updated)
Not of the political variety either.
The UK’s office of national statistics announced on Wednesday that the number of Britons claiming unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly in February by the biggest amount since November 1997.
The Threadneedle uncertainty principle
…and so the Bank of England’s Quarterly Bulletin landed on our desktops with a thump on Monday. And yes, it brought with it a little bit of a mystery over the uncertain recovery of the UK’s labour markets,
I move markets, therefore I am a US NFP
On Friday, the preliminary December numbers for US non-farm payrolls will be published.
Consensus is for a decline of 8,000 after November’s 11,000 drop — a smaller-than-expected fall for most of the market,
Not many new homes
Calculated Risk has a nice rundown of the various government programmes aimed at propping up US housing.
By Calculated’s count there are eight, including the Home Affordable Modification Plan (Hamp),
US non-farm payrolls fall JUST 11,000 in November
US non-farm payrolls fell by JUST 11,000 jobs in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday.
Repeat non-farm payrolls fell by JUST 11,000 in November.
And that’s a huge surprise: the analyst consensus was for a loss of 130,000,
Payroll Friday – the Goldman take
From Jan Hatzuis’ team at Goldman Sachs (emphasis ours):
The best news from the [US] labor market in recent months has been evidence that layoffs continue to decline. However, the other half of the labor market picture—hiring—is still missing as firms largely are utilizing their existing workforces to push up production rather than adding new workers.
US consumers’ credit problem
Data released on Wednesday show US consumer credit declined for the seventh straight month in August as wary, cash-strapped consumers kept their credit cards in their wallets.
The Federal Reserve said consumer credit outstanding fell by a more-than-expected $12bn in August to $2,460bn.
Work work work work…
The French are lazy.
Germans are efficient.
And Brits and Americans are…
Well, the Brits and Americans just work.
Thanks to the FT’s Money Supply blog for pointing us in the direction of the UK’s Office for National Statistic’s international comparisons of productivity,
UK unemployment at highest rate since 1996
From the UK Office of National Statistics on Wednesday:
That’s a UK unemployment rate of 7.9 per cent in August, up 0.7 per cent on the previous three months — slightly less than the 8 per cent rate anticipated by the market.
US August non-farm payrolls fall by 216,000
US non-farm payrolls fell by 216,000 jobs in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Friday.
That compared to a general consensus figure for a loss of 225,000 jobs, according to Reuters.
The unemployment rate rose from 9.4 per cent in July to to 9.7 per cent last month — the highest since June,
A stressful reality for the Fed
Back in April, the Federal Reserve released the methodology for its stress-testing of the major US financial institutions. The Fed’s models included a “baseline” scenario for economic conditions in the US and a “stressed”
Job stat confusion, UK edition
UK labour statistics released on Wednesday pointed to the highest unemployment rate in 14 years. As the FT reported:
Unemployment rose to its highest level for 14 years in June, but the number of new jobless benefit claimants remained much lower than earlier this year. The number of unemployed people in the three months to June rose by 220,000 to reach 2.4m,
Payrolls not so bullish after all, Rosenberg says
Gluskin Sheff’s chief economist David Rosenberg poured cold water over the market’s enthusiastic response to the non-farm payroll data released on Friday.
By his reckoning, “while the numbers represented by far the best jobs performance of the year,
No green shoots in structured finance
That’s according to ratings agency Fitch, who have just revised their outlook for European structured finance – ABS, CMBS, CDOs and the like.
Here’s the press release:
Fitch Ratings-London-15 July 2009:
French workers threaten to blow up plant
Workers at a failed French car parts supplier are threatening to blow up their factory unless the company’s two biggest clients – Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen – stump up extra compensation, the FT reported.
Recession increases suicide and murder
Unemployment and recession add to the death toll from suicide, murder and heart attacks but cut the number killed in road accidents, according to a study conducted by researchers at Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Recruiter sees grim future for London’s out-of-work bankers
If you are 35 years old, have only ever worked in the City and have lost your job, then the chief executive of Britain’s biggest listed recruitment company has a grim message for you on the prospect of a recovery in financial sector employment:
CBI calls for ‘alternative to redundancies’ in UK
The CBI, a top UK business lobby group, is urging the government to adopt an “alternative to redundancy” scheme this autumn that it said could stem job losses as unemployment heads towards three million,
US non-farm payrolls fall 467,000 in June
US non-farm payrolls fell by 467,000 in June, according to a worse-than-expected report released on Thursday by the US Labor Department.
Economists in a Reuters survey had forecast that 363,000 jobs would be lost in the month.
US private sector shed 473,000 jobs in June, ADP says
US companies cut more jobs than forecast in June, according to data released by ADP Employer Services on Wednesday.
The ADP jobs report showed a drop of 473,000 private sector jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis from May to June,
Forget Latvia, what about Spain?
While crisis-related attention has mostly befallen Latvia and emerging Europe of late, there’s more reason than ever to cast one’s eyes to the South of Europe – towards Spain to be specific.
Aside from horrific unemployment figures,
The ‘part-timezation’ of America
David Rosenberg at Gluskin Sheff flagged a different way of looking at US unemployment figures on Monday; rather than noting the slowing rise in unemployment, he pointed in the direction of the number of people employed part-time and average hours worked.
The dollar, US jobs and a risk that could derail markets
The dollar seems to be bouncing back from its lows last week, due partly to better-than- expected US jobs data last Friday – (despite continuing growth in the overall US unemployment rate) - which fuelled speculation that bearish sentiment towards the US currency might be abating.
US employers cut fewer jobs in May than forecast
US employers cut 345,000 jobs last month, significantly fewer than the 520,000 losses forecast by economists, according to data released by the Labor Department on Friday. Job loss estimates ranged from declines of 450,000 to 600,000,
The downside of those white collars
If you’re a recently-sent-on-gardening-leave financial professional bemoaning your fate – take heart. Yours is not the only sector in turmoil.
Michael Mandel at BusinessWeek’s “Economics Unbound” blog points out that engineers, networking/IT/software workers and ‘creative’ types are also feeling pretty terrible right now.
Continuing US jobless claims at fresh record high
The green shoots brigade will focus on the unexpected decline in the number of US workers filing new claims for unemployment benefits, but the bears will rightly note the number of people making continued claims for aid has reached 6.3m.
California unemployment rate hits record 11.2%
The latest regional unemployment data from the US Labor Department continues to paint a startling depiction of how great the job loss chasm that splitting the United States is.
While states like Michigan,