Excerpt from...

Barron's - What to Expect When China’s Markets Reopen

Jan. 31, 2020

Job Outlook Firms

Cumberland Advisors Market Commentary
by Cumberland Advisors
Jan. 28: Perhaps the most telling information about how strong the economy is concerns the job market. On almost any measure, the job market is strong. To be sure, the December CES [Current Employment Statistics] jobs number of 145,000 was off from the 256,000 for November, but the monthly numbers tend to be quite variable. At the same time, the unemployment rate is 3.5%, which is a 50-year low; and new unemployment claims have been declining, from 252,000 for the week of Dec. 7 to 211,000 for the week of Jan. 18. Finally, job openings as reported in the JOLTS [Job Openings and Labor Turnover Surveys] series have continued to decline and now are at 6.8 million, and this figure still exceeds the number of unemployed workers. In short, the job market is strong and shows little sign of wage pressure, which suggests that there is no evidence that the market is overheating or should be a cause for concern.

—Robert Eisenbeis

Read the full article at Barron's (Paywall): https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-dow-is-down-198-points-because-the-jobs-number-was-a-bit-too-good-51581097020/

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