Sunday, September 8, 2013

Toiling feebly along

US employment growth in August wasn't exactly robust. and the numbers for previous months were revised down, a bad sign.  But employment tends to lag a little, and this may be the delayed response to the "fiscal cliff".




However, as the chart below shows better than the one above, employment growth this cycle has been extraordinarily sluggish (Chart from Calculated Risk)





But the change in the unemployment rate (shown inverted on the chart, because unemployment rises in recessions and falls during recoveries) is still consistent with ongoing recovery.  I've plotted it against the yoy change in my coinciding index, which tracks GDP and the cycle.





And overtime hours in manufacturing, also a sensitive indicator to the state of the economy, were up in August.


My assessment is that growth continues, though (a) it's very far from a boom and (b) we still have a long way to go before we reach the previous peak. The GFC's consequences are still with us. (As usual, clicking on each chart will produce a bigger version)

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