Unemployment Steady

It was just a month ago when every headline you could find would be about the employment situation.  Experts everywhere were touting how the national unemployment figures would define the election.  Today a month later, the unemployment figures are out and other than the main headline released this morning, you didn’t hear much about this report all week.  Did we stop caring about the unemployed now that the election is over?

In case you were wondering the unemployment rate for November dropped .2% down to 7.7% which is the lowest we have seen since December 2008.  The economy added a much greater than expected146,000 jobs in the month of November.  The unemployment rate was predicted by most experts to increase due to the devastation by Hurricane Sandy. 

Typically within the employment report there has been factors that have indicated that the employment picture is not as rosy as the headline number indicates.  However, it seems in this report that most of the sub headlines about hiring, and individual employment sector growth, support the improved employment data which means the jobs picture continues to improve and move in the right direction.

Outside of the employment figures, this week was absent of any major economic reports that would move the markets.  The stock market has been trading in a relatively narrow margin and it appears that this will likely be the trend until one way or the other something happens or doesn’t happen with the fiscal cliff.

About 3 years ago I wrote in a newsletter about how consumers had become numb to hearing about the recession and that the markets were not even reacting much to the day to day discussions about it the way they had in the earlier days of the recessions.

Investors and consumers are just sitting and waiting to see what is going to happen with the fiscal cliff and have become numb to the daily reports and commentary coming from every news outlet every single day.  We have accepted the fact that our elected officials are incapable of doing their jobs and we have passed through the anger phase that if any of us behaved the way members of Congress do, we would be fired from our jobs.

Mortgage rates continue to hover around record low territory.  The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that refinance applications jumped 6% where as purchase applications have remained virtually unchanged.

Next week’s market moving reports:

• Wednesday December 12^th - MBA Applications, FOMC Meeting, FOMC Forecast
• Thursday December 13^th –First Time Jobless Claims, Producer Price Index and Retail Sales
• Friday December 14^th – Consumer Price Index and Industrial Production

I appreciate your business and look forward to talking to you soon! Have a great day!!!
 

Sincerely,

Cindy Tomlinson
Loan Officer

USLending Company

DRE Lic # 01520422
NMLS # 214851   

 

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