The latest employment numbers are out and it doesn’t look good (emphasis mine). US employers added 430,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in May, but 411,000 of those were temporary census workers. That number was also well short of the more than 500,000 economists had expected. The unemployment rate, however, fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent in April. I still don’t expect to see significant hiring gains until Q4 of this year at the earliest. My highly non-scientific polling (talking to customers) shows that most are still in a tentative mode. Perhaps some more enlightened analysis will surface later today.
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Why do the so-called experts consistently error on the doom-and-gloom side of economic prediction? The latest numbers via CNNMoney.com’s Jobs grow more than expected: Employers added fewer workers to U.S. payrolls in November, according to a closely-watched government reading on labor market strength released Friday that still came in a bit stronger than Wall Street expectations. Folks, you ever notice they always expect worse numbers? Note how they open the article with a negative comment even though the number is 24,000 jobs higher than expectations. The number will be revised later and the economy is cooling off after a torrid pace during the summer. But it is still strong.
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