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Friday, July 25, 2014

LOTS Of Good News For The U.S. Job Market

Better news for workers: Layoffs are dwindling. "As the U.S. economy has improved and employers have regained confidence, companies have been steadily shedding fewer workers. Which is why applications for unemployment benefits have dwindled to their lowest level since February 2006 — nearly two years before the Great Recession began — the government said Thursday. The trend means greater job security and suggests a critical turning point in the economic recovery. It raises the hope that workers' pay will finally accelerate after grinding through a sluggish recovery for the past half-decade." Associated Press.

And the long-term unemployed seem to be finally getting jobs. "We can get a better picture of the long-term unemployed if we look at the yearly, rather than the monthly, numbers. That eliminates most of the noise from short-term jobs, and short-term moves between unemployment and non-participation....By this measure, the recovery is finally starting to reach the long-term unemployed a little bit more....From Cajner and Ranter, 38 percent of the long-term unemployed from a year ago have a job today. That's almost as many did in 2007, right before the recession hit. And even better, it's more than the number who exited the labor force in the past year." Matt O'Brien in The Washington Post.

Lastly, jobless claims hit an 8.5-year low. "While another report on Thursday showed a sharp decline in new homes sales in June, economists cautioned against reading too much into the drop, noting that other data have pointed to housing getting back on track after stalling in late 2013....Economists said the Federal Reserve would look at the claims data favorably as it considers when to raise interest rates. Fed Chair Janet Yellen cautioned last week that the U.S. central bank could raise rates sooner and more rapidly than currently envisioned if the labor market continued to improve faster than anticipated by policymakers." Lucia Mutikani in Reuters.



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