Unemployment, Inflation, and Grabbing a Bite to Eat
Finally some good (enough) news! Last week the ADP jobs report hinted at a cooling off the labor market with a projected 152,000 jobs added. Last Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that an increase of 272,000 jobs while revising March and April numbers down in total by 15,000 jobs (to 310,000 and 165,000 respectively). Unemployment ticked up to 4%, one of the two targets that the fed was hoping to reach. Relating to construction, 21,000 jobs were added in May after a revised total showed no growth in April. Construction unemployment ticked up to 3.9% versus the 3.7% rate seen a year ago. Most notably though was the continued decrease in job openings which dropped by 8k month over month (m-m) and by 25k year over year (y-y). Hires decreased, also both m-m and y-y, but this does signal any alarms as contractor backlogs stayed flat despite being down by a couple of weeks when compared to a year ago. How can jobs increase so significantly with unemployment a...