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Jobs Numbers Could Be Due to Skewed Data
John Schoen:
Friday's report showing a sharp hiring slowdown in March lends weight to suspicions that a string of positive monthly reports may have been too good to be true.
But the disappointing numbers for March may not be as bad as they seem. The problem, say economists, is that unusual weather and seasonal adjustments may have thrown this winter's data out of whack.
According to the Labor Department's latest monthly survey, employers added just 120,000 jobs in March, well short of the expected pace of more than 200,000 reached in each of the previous three months.
Despite the lackluster gains, the official unemployment rate fell a notch to 8.2 percent in March, the lowest since January 2009, but only because fewer people were looking for work.
The economy has added 858,000 jobs since December and 3.5 million over the past two years. But economists have been paring back their forecasts for economic growth in 2012...(Continue Reading)
Add a comment about what you think this says about the current macro situation.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers aren't clear as to what is happening in the economy. The earlier numbers seemed to show a good start to the year, but this author argues that the earlier numbers may have been inflated due to unusual weather and the seasonal adjustments that go along with that. Either way, the current macro situation is unknown. The numbers aren't clear enough to say anything positive or negative with certainty.
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