ANALYST’S THOUGHTS ON THE JOB’S REPORT
by ilene - April 2nd, 2010 4:34 pm
ANALYST’S THOUGHTS ON THE JOB’S REPORT
Courtesy of The Pragmatic Capitalist
A smattering of analyst opinions on the job’s reportappears pretty mixed. I think the main takeaway here is that this is not a huge market moving event. The improvement is meager and there is A LOT of work yet to be done before we can claim a recovery:
- Goldman Sachs: March Shows Little Underlying Improvement But Other Data Firm
BOTTOM LINE: In a report with something for everyone, payrolls bounce 162,000 in March, due mainly if not entirely to census hiring and weather rebound. On the positive side, payroll data for prior months revised up, and survey of households shows third consecutive month of large job gains. On the negative side, measures of labor utilization – the official unemployment rate as well as the broader “U6″ underemployment rate – remain high, and wages suffer a setback.
- Miller Tabak: Today’s employment report is, in our opinion, quite good, although not without its drawbacks. Income growth continues to be lackluster, complicating the spending picture in the immediate future. However, should job growth prove sustainable, incomes will catch up to spending patterns, thus validating the improvement we’ve seen in the first quarter. Simultaneously, it is quite worrisome to see the ranks of the long-term unemployed swell further. There is concern surrounding the skillset of these individuals and the longer they are out of the workforce, the further their skills erode. However, this action shouldn’t be entirely surprising given the fallout in the construction, manufacturing, housing and financial sectors. Indeed, nearly 52% of people are classified as “not on temporary layoff.” That is to say, more than half the unemployed are not getting their jobs back.