Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Daily Telegraph:
The US economy has delivered two minor shocks in a week, prompting concerns
that bond tapering by the Federal Reserve may be doing more damage than
expected.
Non-Farm Payrolls data released on Friday shows that the workforce shed
806,000 jobs in April, a stunning drop that cannot plausibly be blamed on
the weather. Wage growth and hours worked were both flat and the
manufacturing hours per week fell.
This follows news earlier in the week that the economy to a halt in the first
quarter. Growth plummeted to 0.1pc and is now well below the Fed’s “stall
speed” indicator. Analysts blamed this on the freezing polar vortex over the
winter.
Yet the jobs data confirm a disturbingly weak picture. The headline
unemployment rate fell to 6.3pc but that was only because the labour
“participation rate” plummeted back to a modern-era low of 62.8pc, last seen
in 1978 when there were far fewer women in the workforce. The rate for males
is the lowest ever recorded at 69.1pc.
The rest can be found here.
The rest can be found here.
