[lbo-talk] US employment

[Doug Henwood]

This morning's U.S. employment report was pretty sucky. Not 
disastrous, but 112k is a disappointing. Only a handful of sectors 
added significant numbers. Manufacturing shrank for the third month 
in a row, and retail fell. The average hourly wage was up just a 
penny, and it looks like year-to-year real wages are down by more 
than 1% - the worst performance since 1991. The survey of households 
looked better, but the survey of employers is more reliable. We're 
now 9.7 million jobs below where we'd be in a "normal" recovery.

Doug