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Right this moment’s jobs information was dynamite. Not solely did the US add a forecast-smashing 517,000 jobs in January, December’s determine was revised up, the unemployment charge fell to three.4 per cent — the bottom since 1969 — and earnings are rising at a 4.4 per cent annual tempo.
Revisions are probably coming. As Oxford Economics’ Ryan Candy notes:
The surge in job progress in January overstates the energy within the job market as employment progress in January continuously surprises to the upside and doesn’t warrant any change to the change to the baseline forecast.
It’s additionally possible that 2Q22 payrolls grew slower than initially reported, as Barclays pointed out this week. Nonetheless, right now’s report mainly paints an image of a US economic system nonetheless buzzing properly alongside. Which is odd, because a lot of people mentioned that the US was facing a recession final yr, or was already in one. The Heritage Basis even dubbed it “Biden’s Recession”.
The US’s GDP did decline for 2 consecutive quarters final yr, the standard definition of a recession. However even when the roles market was weaker than initially reported in 2022, the newest information exhibits that weak point was shortlived. And the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis hasn’t made an official recession name.
Final yr, then again, recession vibes had been virtually off the charts. Listed here are Google searches for “recession” exploding, surpassing even the Covid-induced peaks of 2020 and the worldwide monetary disaster in 2008.
The media, as is its wont, didn’t assist:
Family confidence, naturally, slid via the yr (though inflation might have been an even bigger issue right here):
Even CEOs appear to purchase into the recession narrative. Listed here are mentions of “recession” in earnings calls, which spiked in early 2021 and remained remarkably widespread via that yr and 2022.
Are we jinxing issues? Fairly presumably, and if the (extremely seen) tech sector is something to go by, some corporations are starting to seek out strategy to reduce — even when that isn’t translating into the headline figures.
It’s definitely too early to name a ‘tender touchdown’. What’s sauce for Joe Biden is . . . not sauce for Jay Powell and the Fed, who have to be worrying concerning the inflationary threats from a decent jobs market.
All this week, FTAV’s inbox has been full of commentary about central banks lastly turning a nook on tightening. However what lies past is unknown.
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