Continue reading U.S. Stock Futures Up as Investors Await Jobs Report

U.S. Stock Futures Up as Investors Await Jobs Report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Jobs Report Falls Short, Pushing Stocks Lower

Jobs Report Falls Short, Pushing Stocks Lower originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Many were expecting good news out of the Labor Department when it released the nonfarm payroll report for July. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case -- and the morning has taken a decidedly bearish tone.

According to the Labor Department, 131,000 jobs were lost during the month. The drop was attributed to the fact that 143,000 Census-related jobs were cut. Analysts expected overall employment to absorb the number of temporary jobs cut and show a drop of 65,000. When revising payrolls for May and June the picture turned even bleaker. The Labor Department revised the reading for those two months lower by 97,000, meaning fewer jobs than originally thought were created.

Continue reading Payroll Data Sets Bearish Tone for the Trading Day

Payroll Data Sets Bearish Tone for the Trading Day originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Investors and economists received a rather nasty surprise this morning when the Labor Department released its weekly data on initial claims for jobless benefits. According to the Labor Department, new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 19,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 479,000.

The government did note that some of the surprise increase (a small decrease was expected) may be attributed to difficulties the government has in adjusting for seasonal factors. The four-week average of initial claims increased by 5,250 to 452,250.

Continue reading Jobless Claims Data Cast a Bearish Tone

Jobless Claims Data Cast a Bearish Tone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

According to the ADP employment payroll report released Wednesday morning, private-sector employment in the United States increased by 42,000. This data is a precursor to Friday's nonfarm payroll report, which is expected to show a decline of 60,000. July's increase was the sixth straight increase.

With experts predicting a drop of 60,000 jobs, I have one major concern. According to the article, analysts are expecting an increase of 96,000 jobs in the private sector. But the private sector (while it did report an increase) reported far fewer than 96,000 added jobs.

Continue reading U.S. Private Sector Jobs Increase During July

U.S. Private Sector Jobs Increase During July originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This morning's nonfarm payroll report was a good news/bad news sort of situation. The good news? The nation added 431,000 jobs last month. The bad news? Of those jobs, 411,000 were added thanks to the Census, meaning they were temporary workers.

In reality, payrolls advanced by 20,000 during May (taking the temporary jobs out of the equation), a rather disappointing number (and far short of the expected increase of 540,000).

Continue reading Temporary Census Jobs Drive May's Hiring Increase

Temporary Census Jobs Drive May's Hiring Increase originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Just when it seemed it was going so well, the ADP employment report demonstrated this morning that we have perhaps allowed our hopes to get too high. Expectations called for a gain of 40,000 jobs when the March ADP data was released, that was not the case. Rather than the gain, we were treated to the rather sour surprise of a drop of 23,000 jobs. In reaction to this news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 40 points lower in the first hour of trading.

That said, this may just be a temporary glitch in the jobs picture (I stress the term temporary). The ADP does not take government jobs into account, nor does it effectively "capture changes in the weather." Experts note that a surge in employees thanks to the 2010 Census should help the March payroll data. For this reason, the nonfarm payroll data released on Friday is expected to reflect a gain of 189,000 jobs.

Continue reading ADP Jobs Data Casts a Bearish Shadow

ADP Jobs Data Casts a Bearish Shadow originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Unemployment Held Steady in February

Unemployment Held Steady in February originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Well, this was a nice surprise ... the unemployment rate fell to 9.7% in January from 10% in December, according to the Labor Department. This is good news, as expectations were for the unemployment rate to hold at 10% -- so some people are finding some jobs somewhere.

That said, the number of nonfarm payrolls dropped by 20,000 while expectations called for a gain of 25,000. With stock futures limiting some of their early morning losses, it looks as if investors and analysts are holding on to the unemployment rate news rather than the news that more jobs were lost than expected.

Continue reading Surprise Drop in the Unemployment Rate Is No Reason to Celebrate

Surprise Drop in the Unemployment Rate Is No Reason to Celebrate originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Private Sector Jobs Drop to Two-Year Low

Private Sector Jobs Drop to Two-Year Low originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Jobless rate jumps to 10.2% during October

Jobless rate jumps to 10.2% during October originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Last week, the number of people filing initial claims for state unemployment dropped by 20,000. As a result, benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 512,000. This drop in filings was the first in the past two weeks, and it is the lowest level of initial claims seen since early January.

That said, initial jobless claims have come in atop 500,000 for the past 51 weeks. In addition, the four-week average of claims dropped 3,000 to 523,700. This total is the lowest since the beginning of the year. Expectations called for initial jobless claims to drop to 520,000 last week, so it may be time to sound the rally bell.

Continue reading Jobless claims drop during the last week of October

Jobless claims drop during the last week of October originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

It would have been nice if the jobs report this morning was simple, containing only surprises to the upside. But of course, the jobs market continued to show weakness as the August nonfarm report showed. The unemployment rate rose from 9.4% in July to 9.7% last month, the highest since June 1983. Meanwhile, employers cut a net total of 216,000 nonfarm jobs.

The unemployment rate was above economists' expectations of 9.5%, but the payroll decline below their projections for a cut of 225,000 jobs. For now, stock futures are still higher, indicating markets could at least start the session on a positive note.

Continue reading Jobless report: Good and bad surprises as unemployment reaches 9.7%

Jobless report: Good and bad surprises as unemployment reaches 9.7% originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

247,000 US jobs were lost in July, far less than the 320,000 that were expected. The unemployment rate eased slightly to 9.4% from 9.5% in June. And there was more good news -- 43,000 fewer jobs were lost in May and June than previously reported.

The Labor Department reported that this was the first time since April 2008 that the jobless rate has fallen. Official numbers show that 6.7 million jobs were lost since the start of the recession.

Continue reading Employment reports shows fewer jobs than expected were lost in July

Employment reports shows fewer jobs than expected were lost in July originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Bad jobs report could spark a rally ... or capitulation -- an absurd argument

Bad jobs report could spark a rally ... or capitulation -- an absurd argument originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 06:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Today's markets are likely to move based on the higher-than-expected unemployment rate. At 8:30 a.m., the Labor Department announced a mixed employment picture: lower-than-expected job loss, yet higher-than-expected unemployment rate. But the more important questions for the economy are how many jobs were lost in 2008 and how many more will perish in the next few years.

Despite being better than expected, the numbers of jobs lost in December are still awful at 524,000. Not to mention, that the unemployment rate rose from 6.7% to 7.2%. Economists had forecast 550,000 lost jobs in December and an unemployment rate of 7%. The actual 7.2% unemployment rate is the highest in 26 years. Also, the 2.6 million jobs lost in 2008 marks the worst level since 1945. If things keep going along those lines, the unemployment rate could top 10%.

Continue reading Unemployment rate worse than expected -- leaps to 7.2%

Unemployment rate worse than expected -- leaps to 7.2% originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 09:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Very poor September jobs report as employers' belt-tightening continues

Very poor September jobs report as employers' belt-tightening continues originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The U.S. market is driving the world -- whose stock indices plunged after yesterday's 345 Dow rout. But what does today bring? A chance for recovery or further devastation depending on whether reported economic statistics are better or worse than economists expect. Early reports are bad.

Here are the reports to watch, and what analysts had been expecting according to CNNMoney:

• Job cuts - Economists expected 75,000 lost jobs, but the 8:30am report was 84,000 lost jobs -- worse than expected.
• Unemployment rate - They had forecast the jobless rate to stay the same at 5.7%, but economists were wrong on this one too and unemployment rose to 6.1%.
• Hours worked - Economists anticipated the hour work week wouldn't change from July at 33.7, and they were right.
• Change in hourly earnings - Economists saw a 0.3% increase in the hourly wage, the same as July, but hourly wages rose 0.4%. Some may interpret this as inflationary pressure, but the increase is likely not enough to increase consumer spending either.

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter.

Market to tumble on bad economic stats originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 05 Sep 2008 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading U.S. economy sheds 51k jobs in July, as unemployment hits 4-year high

U.S. economy sheds 51k jobs in July, as unemployment hits 4-year high originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Jobs unexpectedly drop -- is the economy already in a recession?

Jobs unexpectedly drop -- is the economy already in a recession? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.