> This morning's U.S. employment report sucked. The survey of employers
> showed a loss of 93,000 jobs, when flat to slightly up was a
> reasonable expectation. We've now had seven consecutive months of job
> loss, something we've never seen outside a recession. The workweek
> was short and almost every industrial sector shed jobs. The survey of
> households showed a shrinkage in the labor force - the entire reason
> for the decline in unemployment from 6.2% to 6.1%. The share of the
> adult population working was flat, and remains at a low for this
> cycle. People are buying stuff, but it's not with their paychecks -
> it's all tax refunds and mortgage refinancing. If the job market
> doesn't recover soon, we're in trouble.
>
> Doug
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And mainstreamer econs. like Stephen Roach are poo-pooing the productivity miracle again:
http://www.morganstanley.com/GEFdata/digests/20030905-fri.html#anchor0