We saw a good patch of data this week. I wanted to show some of this data to demonstrate the progress America has made. The link to a Census report allows access to some of this information.
From Census:
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/press-kits/2018/iphi/presentation-income-poverty.pdf
Income Data:
Poverty data:
Just announced: 2017 Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: https://go.usa.gov/xPrP2
The job openings data was also released this week showing a record breaking 6,900,000 job openings today in America.
From BLS: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/jolts.pdf
“The number of job openings was little changed at 6.9 million on the last business day of July, the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the month, hires and separations were little changed at 5.7 million and 5.5 million, respectively. Within separations, the quits rate was little changed at 2.4 percent and the layoffs and discharges rate was unchanged at 1.1 percent. This release includes estimates of the number and rate of job openings, hires, and separations for the non-farm sector by industry and by four geographic regions.”
From Doug Short:
https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2018/09/11/job-openings-labor-turnover-clues-to-the-business-cycle
We are at cycle highs for construction worker job openings. Be mindful here that we have near 7,300,000 construction workers and 273,000 unfilled job openings.
From BLS:
https://www.bls.gov/charts/job-openings-and-labor-turnover/opening-industry.htm
Manufacturing job openings:
From BLS:
https://www.bls.gov/charts/job-openings-and-labor-turnover/opening-industry.htm
Job openings at a series high of 6.9 million in July; far exceeding the number of unemployed for the 5th consecutive month. #JOLTS @BLS_gov
In July, the percentage of U.S. workers quitting their jobs rose to 2.4%—the highest level since April 2001 #JOLTS https://bit.ly/2N6w6f3
I would be concerned about he job openings data if we push toward 8-9 million job opening while monthly job creation numbers go below 100K. However, year to date, we are still pushing over 200K job per month. We have over 156,000,000 people working, the longest job expansion ever recorded in U.S. history, the lowest unemployment claims vs civilian labor force and next year we will break the all time record for the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. As always, the American Bears have simply embarrassed themselves.
Logan Mohtashami is a financial writer and blogger covering the U.S. economy with a specialization in the housing market. Logan Mohtashami is a senior loan officer at AMC Lending Group, which has been providing mortgage services for California residents since 1987. Logan also tracks all economic data daily on his own facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Logan.Mohtashami