[lbo-talk] employment numbers, Canada & US

[Doug Henwood]

The U.S. employment release was quite disappointing. Despite other 
signs of an improving job market - lower unemployment claims, higher 
employment components in the purchasing managers' (ISM) surveys, 
improved confidence indexes - adding just 57,000 jobs is way 
underwhelming. Manufacturing clocked its 40th consecutive month of 
job loss. Retail also shrank, mainly because of the California 
grocery strike (striking workers are counted as not employed) - but 
there seemed to be no spate of pre-Xmas hiring, despite expectations 
for a better shopping season. Also, real hourly earnings have been 
trending downward for the last several months, after staying positive 
through the recession and the weak recovery. I think the formulation 
I've been working with - a cyclical recovery within a larger more 
troubled trend - still holds.

Doug