Employment Data

Is this a new normal where little-to-no job growth is, well, “normal?” Friday’s employment data was very sub-par again.

New job formation just 96,000 on expectations of 125,000.
The prior month’s data was revised LOWER by 22,000.
-15,000 manufacturing jobs were lost, compared to the expected +10K.
The unemployment rate dropped to 8.1% because a huge amount of people have stopped looking for jobs: labor force participation dropped to 63.5%, down from 63.7%.
The labor participation rate declined from 63.7% to 63.5%, the lowest since 1981. Somehow in August the labor force declined by 368,000 people.
College grads (and higher) are at the highest unemployment rate since the BLS began tracking.
Since the beginning of the year, job growth has averaged 139,000 per month, compared with an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.
The real unemployment rate from the government’s report (U-6) is 14.7%.

This terrible news didn’t affect the market though. It was “bullish” because it was bad enough to make people think that this week’s 2-day FOMC meeting will bring out QE3.

Trade well and follow the trend, not the so-called “experts.”

Behold the age of infinite moral hazard! On April 2nd, 2009 CONgress forced FASB to suspend rule 157 in favor of deceitful accounting for the TBTF banking mafia

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