Up, Up, But Not Quite Away
We were expecting a little more, but at least it’s trending in the right direction. We are speaking of the employment report, which showed payrolls rose by 431,000 last month.
That would be very good news, if not for the fact that 411,000 of the new hires were related to the census. Nevertheless, that still leaves a net positive for the private sector. The increase was enough to push the unemployment rate down to 9.7 percent (though some pundits argue the drop was really due to a lower participation rate).
You never want to read too much into a single month of data, but we remain encouraged: job growth and wages picked up from April to May, while the average workweek lengthened. And although moderate compared to past post-recessions, the recovery is looking more sustainable after consumer spending and business investment rose at a healthy pace in the first quarter.
Overall, we think this latest employment report provides another reason to act now in both the mortgage and housing markets.
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2 Responses to “Up, Up, But Not Quite Away”
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Thanks again for your perspective, Dean.
Brian
None the less positive news, hopefully a long term trend.