Break In: Jobs!

We're doing a break in from our summer hours policy today to report on the jobs numbers.  They were simply awful!  While nothing in this report indicates that we are on the cusp of a recession, the data is indicative of an economy that has slowed down in the 2nd quarter.   Here from Chart of the day.com/ is their latest free chart posting on jobs and what they've said today:

"The latest jobs report came out today with the Labor Department reporting that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) increased by 69,000 in May. Today's chart {above} provides some insight into the current US job market by comparing the percentage change in total nonfarm payrolls (blue line) since the declared end of the Great Recession to the performance of the private sector job market (gold line) and government sector job market (red line) during the same period. As today's chart illustrates, the overall job market (blue line) continues to trend higher albeit at a pace that has slowed over the past several months. Today's chart also illustrates that the government job market has been trending significantly lower since the first half of 2009 (with the exception of temporary census hiring in mid-2010). This decline is due to federal, state and local governments attempting to realign their budgets following an unexpected decline in revenues as a result of the historic plunge in housing prices (i.e. property taxes, capital gains, etc.) and nonfarm payrolls (i.e. income taxes, payroll taxes, etc.)."

One thing these employment numbers are going to do is put the White House into panic mode.  Voter's opinions about the economy will harden over the summer and their perspective on its future will largely determine how they will vote.  This is especially true in swing states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa. 

Will think about what all this means over the weekend and will try to put it into perspective next week.

Link:  Chart of the Day: Jobs.

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