Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Miracle on 34th St is not an economic solution

I was pulling on a thread today researching the product of cryogenic treated fret wire. I have a Les Paul style guitar I built from a kit while in college in the early 80’s that needs a new fret board. I stumbled upon this bit of history: Scroll down to response #11 CB Alyn “In […]

Two important employment indicators from November: one says continued expansion, the second recession

  – by New Deal democrat This is going to be a sparse week for data, with the exception of tomorrow’s long-delayed Q3 GDP report, and jobless claims on Wednesday. Sadly, so much of the data is still missing or stale that the best source for up-to-date information is in the regional Fed reports, most […]

Q3 employment costs: probably the “least positive” since the pandemic

 – by New Deal democrat The employment cost index, which was updated this morning through Q3, typically gets much less attention than the monthly payrolls report. But in this circumstance it is entitled to more notice, since the monthly data has only been posted through September as well. Additionally, one important advantange of the Employment Cost […]

October JOLTS report: red flag warning for employment sector in worst report since the pandemic

– by New Deal democrat This morning’s JOLTS report for October is now the most current official monthly indicator for the jobs sector. And it was emphatically not good. In fact, it was red flag recessionary. In the past year, in contrast to much other data in the jobs sector, the JOLTS reports had been very […]

New Deal democrats Weekly Indicators September 1- 5

 – by New Deal democrat My latest “Weekly Indicators” post is up at Seeking Alpha. The high frequency data continues to be buoyed by financial indicators as well as consumer spending, despite the weakness we saw in, among other things, Friday’s employment report. As usual, clicking over and reading will bring you up to the virtual […]

Initial and continuing claims continue to trend in opposite directions

 – by New Deal democrat Obviously this morning’s PPI number was the most important report of the day. I want to get to that later, but first let’s update the jobless claims situation. The good numbers in initial claims continued, as they declined -3,000 to 224,000. The four week moving average increased 750 to 221,750. But […]

Just Learn to Code

Sometimes, even a seasonally-adjusted picture from FRED is worth a thousand words. In three years–three good economic years–the number of Software Developer jobs listed on Indeed has fallen just over 70%. If there were ten jobs listed three years ago, there are almost three listed now. Note that most of the drop was before all […]

December Bureau of Labor Statistics

November 2024 Labor Stats as you can read for yourself. I am interested in seeing how the BLS screwed up on earlier employment reports over a period of time. The graphs show part of that period of time. Everything looks like what it should be. I am not going to start a campaign on what […]

In-depth look at the leading indicators from the employment report

– by New Deal democrat First things first: there’s almost no significant economic news at all this week until Thursday, so don’t be surprised if I play hooky for a day or two. The coincident headline news out of last Friday’s employment report was very positive, so most all observers heaved a sigh of relief. Of […]

One more time: bifurcation in the jobs report, as Establishment Survey shows continued jobs growth, while Household Survey comes close to triggering the “Sahm Rule”

 – by New Deal democrat AB: July 3rd, NDd mentioned he would review the comparison between the Household and the Establishment Survey Reports today. He had initially look at the comparison July 3. In the past few months, my focus has been on whether jobs gains are most consistent with a “soft landing,” i.e., no further […]