Good News on Jobs?

The official numbers for November were out this past Friday, December 8. The gain of 199,000, a bit better than most had expected.

However, after downward adjustments to the prior two months and recognizing that workers returning from the auto strike boosted November's gains, it's fair to say the employment report was "blah".

More interesting was the unexpected decline in the unemployment rate to 3.7% versus an expected 3.9%. This result sent bond investors running for the hills.

They may have been premature as it looks like technical adjustments might have been the culprit for the surprisingly low unemployment rate. I'll let Mike Shedlock explain in these posts.

BLS Jobs Report Stronger than ADP, Fueled in Part by End of UAW Strike

The differences between the BLS jobs report today and the ADP report on Wednesday are striking. Let’s go over some details.

MishTalkMike Shedlock

How Much Did the Huge 412,000 Birth-Death Adjustment Impact October’s Job Report?

Last month the BLS padded unadjusted jobs by 412,000. Curiously, not even the BLS can tell us how that impacted the headline reported job gains.

MishTalkMike Shedlock

Here's the Wall Street Journal article, the source of the charts above. (Note, all landings are soft until they aren't.)

Economy’s Soft Landing Comes Into View as Job Growth Slowly Descends

A gradual cooling of the still-solid labor market extended into November, keeping the U.S. economy on a glide path for a soft landing.

The Wall Street JournalAmara Omeokwe and Nick Timiraos